Sage
by KenzoXShuyita
Summary: Naruto had done it. He had saved Konoha from sure destruction by defeating Pein and had finally received love and affection from the village, the things he had wanted most. And yet, as if Fate was cruel enough to do such a thing, (which by the way, they totally are) an opening in space-time latched onto Naruto and spat him out into Manhattan, New York City. Welcome to America!
1. Something New, Something Quirky

**Chapter One: Something New, Something Quirky**

 **A/N: Fun times. This is not edited and I'm tired.**

 **Disclaimer: I have no ownership of Naruto or the Percy Jackson series.**

 **"Bolded because probably a god or a titan. Oooo."**

 **Chapter One START**

Pain. Suffering. Loss.

Triumph. Victory. Success.

One rift in space took away a blond shinobi, permanently removing him from his home and causing ripples throughout the new world that not even the gods would prophecy of.

 **XShuyaX**

One Naruto Uzumaki was in pain. Traveling through the rift was not exactly a pleasant experience. No, it was quite the opposite; those thirty seconds were the most torturous moments of life he had ever experienced.

 _Naruto could feel his head bursting…figuratively, but also quite literally. The painfully loud sounds of explosions in his ears – blood finally moving around as a proper fluid - only deafened his heightened senses did not help him recover from the torture he had just escaped for the second._

 _'Breathe! Breathe! What in Kami's name was that?'_ Naruto mentally panicked as he touched his body all over, making sure he was in one piece. Mentally attempting to stabilize himself, he forced himself – extremely forcefully – to take a deep breath. It didn't help much, but at least he was no longer mentally panicking. He had never even imagined that someone had access to a space time technique, so being thrown through one was quite the ride and mental stimulator for questioning.

Once he had regained his bearings as best he could, the blond swiped the sweat from his brow and took a seat on his ass, completely wiped out. Mentally, he would need at least fifteen minutes to say 'nope, that never happened.' But by whatever Kami deemed holy, he prayed that whatever had happened in the portal would never, _ever,_ happen again. He had been down in the dumps before, but that pain was _ungodly_. Simply thinking about the whole ordeal was giving him a headache. He rubbed at his temple and gave out a sigh.

 _'Deep breath, Uzumaki Naruto. You've been through worse…I think. And you've never had anything bring you down in life, so what does thirty minutes of pain mean to you?'_ The headache grew in pain. _'Quite a lot…that was probably the worst thing I've ever gone through. Did the Fourth Hokage have to go through that kind of pain every time he used his **Hiraishin**? I really doubt it, considering that the guy was basically a genius with seals. Probably put a seal that nullified pain…and worked with the whole time aspect of the travel. I was in that realm for way too long to be useful in a fight again. Why am I thinking about this stuff anyway? Let's think of better things! Like Hinata-chan, and Sakura-chan, and good ol' Hatake Kakashi, the lazy bastard he is…and ramen!'_

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto decided that he had spent enough time sitting around and recovering and getting to scouting around the area. He had pushed the thought of the mental torture away and was now fixated on three things. One: why was he here, wherever 'here' was? Was the teleportation a mistake or on purpose? Two: who used the teleportation? Three: If someone used any form of space time in their ability, how did they use it? Was there a way to reverse engineer it in a way that he could comprehend to make it into his own technique? And if not, could the culprit even send him back to Konoha?

Well, even if the subject in question couldn't, it was far too dangerous to let someone that could teleport people at free will just roam around freely. He'd be forced to fight the person into submission, if it came down to that.

With that thought filed away, Naruto wasted no more time exploring his direct vicinity. The first thing he noticed was that all around him, people in a completely different style of clothing were asleep in strange positions all over the road, as if they were set under an illusion or put to sleep against their will. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. Also, there were weird…locomotive things that had people inside that were moving at about an inch per second.

Everyone around the area just seemed completely given in to Morpheus' sweet gift of rest, many condiments and foods spilled to the streets.

 _'Is this a daily thing or is something more going on? Look underneath the underneath time!'_

The blond rubbed his eyes – that hurt – just to make sure everything was actually the way he was seeing it. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion…and then the platinum haired teen looked up.

"…What in Kami's name are these tall buildings…"Naruto was in absolute awe and amazement of the giant skyscrapers, towering far above him. He couldn't help but lgape as he took in the formidable structures, hundreds of times his height. It kind of reminded him of the first time he ran into the **Kyuubi** or **Boss Toad** , except on a much, _much_ larger scale. Piqued, he began running up the tallest skyscraper in the vicinity with chakra carefully spread across his feet, rising up a thousand feet in hardly ten seconds. Once at the top, a huge breeze struck him and his hair flowed viciously to the left.

And then his eyes widened immediately in shock and revelation, as his heart sunk like a rock.

There was no way he was home. Not anywhere near Konoha…and definitely not in the Elemental Nations either.

 _'What in Kami's name is going on here?'_

All around him, there were gigantic, towering buildings just like the one he stood on, except they were varying in size and decorum. The majority of them did have windows that reflected rather harshly in the afternoon light. Looking further beyond, he saw a large mass of water – a river – underneath a multitude of long, metal bridges that were empty and void of anything. But buildings stood everywhere; tall, short, cultural, interestingly shaped…you name it, there was one for everything. Naruto pondered in his wonder if there was an upside-down house.

 _'That'd be cool…I'd just stand on the ceiling and I'd see everything normally.'_

Moving past the childish thought, Naruto kept his scrutinizing gaze on the city. It felt like a well-used organ, just like home. There was a structure and reason for everything, it seemed, and he was struck by nostalgia.

 _'How do I get home…oh! I can summon the toads!'_

Excited by a prospect that could work, Naruto set to work and performed the necessary hand seals before shouting –

" **Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"**

A seal of kanji that Naruto would recognize anywhere spread over the ground in a radial direction outwards, away from his hand.

 _'It's working!'_

A second later, a poof of smoke and…nothing. Naruto scrunched his eyebrows.

 _'Maybe more chakra?'_

Fail. Naruto began to feel his hopes disappear into the wind that had just picked up.

 _'…Again.'_

Failure.

 _'Again.'_

No show.

 _'Again!'_

And the trend continued, with Naruto inputting more and more chakra until he was at a quarter of his reserves, sweating heavily from both exhaustion and mental frustration. The summoning technique was a complete failure. But if he couldn't get into contact with the toads, that meant that he was in a completely different plane of existence currently. On the verge of hyperventilating, Naruto took another calming breath and tried, for the life of him, to figure out this whole situation. Everything he came up with seemed impossible, with each thought becoming more ridiculous than the previous.

 _'There's no way some ghosts had a resentment towards me, and then used some kind of space-time technique, with more emphasis on time, to send me to another dimension that had no connection to the toads, right? Edo Tensei? That doesn't even make sense! And how could that rift send me so far from Konoha in the first place? If I can't even call upon the toads, I'm so far that my location is probably…impossible to reach for them, even with seals…for Kami's sake…'_

Naruto began to cry, crumbling to the ground as he felt defeat wash over him. He had just received the adoration of the village, and he could literally _feel_ the possibility of Hokage in the grasp sometime in the near future. His goal was right there. It was _right_ there! All that work he had put in blew up in smoke, much like the failed summoning techniques minutes before. Seventeen years of existence, and only a few days of peace and comfort with the people he loved and trusted with hardly any negative emotions directed at him. He had cherished those days so much; he felt like it was his reward for putting in so much work.

 _'And now…they're all gone. There's nothing. What's the point? All the effort to becoming the greatest ninja in history just went down the drain. My future was ripped away from me. How is this fair? How…how is any of this **FAIR**?!' _

Naruto, deep inside of himself, felt anger bubbling up as his fists clenched in fury. Rage gripped him as molten anger rushed through him, coursing through his whole body thoroughly. At this moment, Naruto cursed Kami. He cursed all the gods, and the unfairness of his life. And cursed how, when he had just won over the village to longer see him as the fox, he lost it all.

 _'Wait…where is the **Kyuubi's** chakra? When I get upset, he always manages to slip out some chakra, but now…I don't even feel anything coming from the cage. Am I…free?' _

That thought of separation from the fox took away all of the rage and replaced it with euphoria. Positivity and optimism was one of the teen's strongest assets.

 _'So what if I'm in a completely different world? Unlikely; if I'm ever separated from the bastard, then I die and he gets free. I'm not dead, and I don't sense any malicious chakra roaming the earth right now, so I guess he's still stuck with me. Bah, I'll figure this whole thing out later; first things first, where the hell am I? For now, let's survive!'_

Much more energized and relaxed, Naruto took a meditative position at the center of the roof and prepared to use **Sage Mode**. A minute later, the tell tale signs of the technique working showed on the body. Orange pigmentation around the eyes and a deep sense of serenity and calm spread out from Naruto. A moment later, he opened his eyes, revealing to the world his yellow eyes with a horizontal bar set in the middle of his iris.

 _'That was lot…faster than I was expecting. The meditation stage usually takes two minutes and thirty seconds, but that was hardly a minute. Maybe there's a drawback? Either way, let's see what the layout of life looks like!'_

Tapping into his abilities, Naruto _felt_ the life force of the many individuals in the city, almost all of which seemed to be very normal civilians. Only a couple thousand felt out of the ordinary in the amount of power, and maybe ten or twenty out of those were reaching levels he felt surprised by, and they were all almost together, except separated in two large, concentric camps.

The more powerful sources that he felt were easy to get a general location from, but it certainly confused him. A few of them were in the sky, two were on the ground level, and another just reeked of death below the earth.

 _'It's not chakra, though. Not a world of ninjas, it seems.'_

Honing his senses closer to the mass of concentrated, elevated powers, Naruto noticed a fleeting source that seemed to be flickering in energy between low and high. It was definitely one of the sources he recognized as unordinary…and he was dying. He narrowed his eyes in the process of changing his focus solely to the flickering energy source and locked on.

 _'Time to gain some information about this world!'_

Naruto jumped off the roof and free fell, caution thrown out of the wind. He had this, easily. Once he was near the ground, he created a **Kage Bunshin** ( **Shadow Clone** ), which grabbed the original and threw him closer to the scent of iron. He repeated this process of summoning and throwing until he felt that he was directly on top of the smell. Casually landing on the streets far from his original position, Naruto checked his surroundings immediately, as if it were an innate process as his transformation wore off.

"You *cough*…you can jump pretty far. I must be dying," a weak, raspy voice croaked out. Naruto whipped his head to the voice and found himself staring at a teen his age donned in complete bronze armor, with black hair and blue eyes, and blood covering the rest of his body. The blond nearly teleported to the teen, kneeling over to him with a worried expression, his eyebrows scrunched up.

 _"Are you okay?"_ The teen coughed out blood in response and gave Naruto a confused smile.

"Ah…I must really be dying, haha. I can't even understand what you're saying." This time, it was Naruto's turn to give the dying teen a confused expression. He couldn't comprehend the language. "You sound like Ethan Nakamura…" the teen coughed out more blood before continuing. "…Yea…you sound like Nakamura when he curses in Japanese sometimes."

Naruto gingerly cupped the teen behind the head and propped his body up before the boy coughed again.

"Where do I go to help you?" The blond asked as he pulled out some bandages from his pouch and began getting to work on the boy, ripping some of the material with his teeth. The teen's armor was in the way, so Naruto quickly created a clone to stabilize the position of the dying demigod prior to removing the armor. Immediately after, Naruto went to work with heavy concentration.

"By the gods, I am really dying. There are two of you, haha-" He coughed from the laughter, spewing out more blood. The clone of the blond gave him a stare that he clearly registered as _'stop talking and don't laugh.'_ But he wasn't sure, so he kept talking in his foreign tongue. "My name's Roy Michaels, and I had the curse of having two first names…kinda. By the way, you said… _'doko'_ , which is 'where', I believe?"

The blond and his clones' eyes lit up with recognition from the word, despite the terrible accent. The two looked at each other quickly before the clone nodded and took over the bandaging procedure.

"Yeah! Which camp…if it matters? Just give me the basic information!" Naruto shouted desperately, a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes .

"If you could take me back to the camp, that's directed to your left," Roy rasped out, his voice getting weaker. The teen barely managed to raise his right arm and point in the proper direction. Naruto nodded and immediately picked up Roy, who groaned but otherwise didn't complain. The clone finished up the last of his bandages and ran off in front of the original before finding another skyscraper to conquer. He wanted to gain more information of the land.

Meanwhile, the blond took off, using some chakra to create six more clones and run off in any direction except backwards. If they found anything of value, the clones could just pop themselves and give the memories back to the original.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Naruto looked down and saw Roy point to his left. The blond gave a curt nod once he realized what the black haired teen meant and made way by turning a corner as smoothly as he could.

 _'I do know how to get there, though.'_

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Camp of Kronos)**

Ethan Nakamura was not one to be described as a weak individual, neither in physical prowess nor mental fortitude. As the lieutenant of Kronos himself, it would be a difficult task for many to even call him anything but skilled, considering that he was one of the few that could battle Percy Jackson in weapon combat for longer than a minute. He was methodical, smart, and an amazing strategist, which was why he was employed as a lieutenant in the first place.

But most difficult of all would be to argue against the fact the child of Nemesis had style. It was a huge facet and a surprisingly large part to why Kronos even let Nakamura into his tent filled with superiors.

Black hair that ran over his left eye, with an eye patch just for clarification that he was not emo, Ethan chose to wear the simplest of armors. Brown shoulder pads, a light bronze chest plate, and dark black gloves that stopped just over his knuckles. Underneath, he preferred a long length tunic navy blue shirt and black joggers. As for shoes, he modeled, in his words, in _'only the spiciest boosted shoes.'_ A strong hatred for Suhpreme, and quite the love for any shoes with extra boost in the sole, especially A-deed-ass, the teen was a fashion model with a strong sense of balance, and all would agree. His most memorable quote was when one demigod asked why Ethan always went out in missions in his most recognizably wealthy and stylish clothes.

 _"Traitors got to have style. That way, more people join in."_

Many of the demigods on Kronos' side merely said in response, "You're not wrong, lieutenant." Those that were recruited by the young Japanese demigod recalled that they, too, were intrigued by his style when first meeting the sword and shield user.

And now, war would soon take place. In an a few hours, the next day, or whenever Kronos decided it was time to attack. And Ethan was prepared. This was the climactic moment in his life. Everyone – all soldiers, centaurs, creatures – they would see and bask in the glory of style. Balance in everything, style especially.

Ethan gave himself a mental pat in the head, thinking of the garments he had prepared in the wardrobe. He had spent months, torturing himself as he mentally fought over what clothes to model the day of the battle. It was as much a war in his head as it was to be in Manhattan. And then, he came across the revolutionary outfit one day as everything just came into his mind.

 _"Perfectly balanced…as all things should be," he mumbled quietly to himself as his one, lone eye widened as he dramatically walked towards the shirt that would fit his outfit perfectly. "This is it." He looked over to the cashier and saw no line._

 _'This must be a sign. Thank you, mother.' He felt a sense of content wash over him. Then, Ethan walked over to the cashier, and bought the shirt._

Now, it was not to say that Ethan wasn't cool. He was a very comfortable individual to be with and talk to, according to everyone that ever met him…excluding probably Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. However, ever since his discovery of the perfect shirt, the demigods in the camp of Kronos all came to an agreement that the lieutenant had chilled out significantly and also never sighted the teenager having random moments where he would pluck his eyebrows violently in public, one by one, with hardly any emotion whilst speaking in his first language. Ethan dubbed it his angry face. Amusing, yes, but it was worth losing those few seconds of pure hilariousness if he would no longer take his stress on what to wear for the 'war outfit' on the warriors of Kronos. Ethan came close to being as frightening as Kronos when he hit his rock bottom emotionally over his choice of clothing.

Now that everything is set for the character of Ethan, we must now describe the turbulent events that immediately followed Ethan's thoughts. The young lieutenant first, as we know, gave himself a mental pat in the back. Then, he spent another ten seconds looking over the table filled with Expo Marker lines and writings on top of a map of Manhattan, imagining the plan of the attack in his mind. There was no way that Camp Half Blood and their allies would attack. They were practically glued to their position due to the location of the Empire State Building, and as a minor note, they were surrounded by far greater numbers. A strange hold would not work, as giving any more time to the enemy side would not prove advantageous. There were currently battles taking elsewhere that were distracting a few of the major gods on the opposing side. Either today or tomorrow were the most opportune times to attack. He would prefer the next day, so he could obtain information from his spy that he sent over to the enemy camp, reassess his plans, and then spread the revised plan to the ranks.

He would also be able to wash before putting on his 'war outfit', then. He'd be held from sleeping, washing, and changing for nearly forty eight hours due to the plans coming to life with Kronos and the other higher ranking officers in the 'take over Olympus' camp. He was the youngest one in the tent when the plans were discussed; he wondered why he never saw adult demigods prior to the meetings.

Regardless, back to present time. Nakamura, then, looked over to his outfit hanging on the side of his tent with love in his eye. Immediately afterwards, he suddenly heard a loud shout in Japanese that equated to –

"WATCH OUT!"

\- From the exact same location…coming straight for his tent.

Everything then progressed in slow motion. Ethan swore that he felt everything moving ten thousand times slower, also as if he were in a video with the _'Slowish Motion Dudes'._ And then it unfolded…literally. The tent began to fold over as something crashed into his tent, exactly where his beautiful war outfit that had cost him thousands was hung up.

Ethan reached up for his eyebrows.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Outside Ethan's tent)**

This is not what Naruto considered a fun time. He had ran so quickly with a coughing Roy in tow, held bridal style, that the boy wasn't able to keep up with the directions anymore, it had seemed. He had run straight line for nearly five minutes, but Roy was no longer pointing or laughing at what seemed to be his own jokes.

He knew he was approaching one of the centric masses of power. He felt it, as if they weren't even trying to hide their energy. Then, he heard them with his heightened sense. And then he _saw_ them.

A giant cloud of arrows, he meant. Immediately afterwards, he was attacked by creatures that could only be described as darkness and shadows.

"You've got to be kidding me! I'm just trying to save this guy!" Naruto yelled, praying that anyone would understand as he used Iruka's famous screaming technique. It was not effective, if the continuing barrage was anything to go by. _"Pleaaase~, just stop this, dattebayo!"_ He screamed again, in a show of acrobats as he flipped over simmering arrow set on fire with skillful ease…and proceeded to land right into a tent.

All around him, Naruto could percept the hostile emotions all around him switch from cautious hostility to absolute fear. Naruto used this opportunity to throw Roy at one of the teenage soldiers in the camp, who thankfully caught the boy and seemed to shout something that caused a shift in the circle around him. Roy was let down to the ground and appeared to be taken care of by what seemed to be a medic as they fed him a square object that seemed to have immediate effects.

And then Naruto felt it. Oppressive, unadulterated anger and anguish. Hatred and loss. Remorse for the possibly the most important thing in the world…gone in an instant.

"Are you kidding me?!" A voice from inside the tent bellowed out in Japanese. Naruto clenched his fists, prepared for a fight, albeit slightly surprised by the fact someone was speaking fluently in his tongue amidst the sea of foreigners to him.

Out of the tent came Ethan, eyes red and spit flying out of his mouth in a rage that Ares would be proud of. His sword was out on his right hand, and his left was already at his forehead, plucking his already threaded eyebrows with dexterity that would make gamers jealous.

"Who was it?! _Who was it?!"_

The circle around Naruto and the tent widened, leaving the blond teen directly in front of the fuming lieutenant, who was already on his other eyebrow. The blond couldn't help but let out a held in chuckle at the image of one of Ethan's eyebrows completely gone. He looked so _bald_.

Ethan whipped his head around, and zoned in on Naruto, who was hardly holding in his laughing fit. He marched up to the…disgustingly dressed teen and stopped just a few feet away.

"Was it you?!"

Naruto nearly flinched back at the venom in the words that he could comprehend. Considering that he had just took part in battle against Pein, that was quite the achievement. Then again, Pein never really let out any form of bloodlust. He was just powerful with his stupid eyes to boot.

"Was it me that did what?" Naruto croaked out in the same language, his eyebrows arched up in uncertainty. Ethan took another menacing step forward, and Naruto swore that the teen's lone eye glinted with murderous intent.

"Was it you? That. Destroyed. My. Beloved?!" On the last word, Ethan threw his sword at Naruto's face. The ninja dodged it with ease by stepping to the side and grabbed the sword by the hilt in one clean motion.

"I'm going to hold onto this for safekeeping, just saying, dattebayo," Naruto explained as he held the sword carefully in his left hand, his right hand just inches from his weapons pouch. So far, it seemed the circle around him was not imminent to charge. Despite that, he was extremely wary of all of the soldiers surrounding him, especially the one in front of him.

 _'Never too safe to be sorry. Twenty clones around the berth should do the trick…but he also seems to command attention and respect, considering that no one is attacking anymore. So maybe withholding any show of power is the proper action here.'_ Naruto paused in his thoughts, suddenly noticing that both of Ethan's eyebrows were naked. _'Oh Kami, I can't laugh here!'_

"Not cool. And I think you got the wrong guy. I was running in with an injured 'cuz he told me to come here and your group attacked me! So I dodged and ended up jumping into your tent right now. I saved someone…so I don't think it's possible that I killed your beloved," Naruto reasoned carefully. Ethan's eyes lit up with metaphorical fire as the he pointed at Naruto with a clean index finger.

"It _WAS_ you!" Ethan accused assuredly, completely skimming over the fact the blond had same 'jumped'. One jump. Ethan ran back to his tent, leaving Naruto in an awkward stand off for a few moments before the enraged demigod returned with…

"Your beloved is clothes? Really?" Naruto asked unbelievingly. Ethan's fury only became heightened at the incredulous tone, practically bristling from resentment. Naruto caught on to the increasing negative emotions seeping out. _"I'll buy you some to make up for it. Sorry!"_ He added in an apologetic tone.

"Who are you? There's no one here I know that spoke Japanese other than me. Where's your armor? And what in the gods' name are those clothes you are wearing? They are a disgrace and besmirch all that is style and my eyes!"

Naruto frowned. He was cool with giving information if he'd be given information in return, but the attitude the teen was giving him really wearing him thin. Still, he'd prefer to get out of his situation without killing anybody or using enough chakra to scream in a circle the diameter of a mile that he existed.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And I prefer to fight without armor and in these clothes, my preferred outfit since orange is a great color! Since you asked me a question, I'm going to ask you one." The blond paused, thinking for a moment. He knew for certain that he was not anywhere near the Land of Fire, or probably anywhere in the Elemental Nations. Wherever that damned portal took him, it had ripped him from his home to somewhere with tall buildings and vehicles that looked nothing like carts and wagons.

Ethan, despite his rage, seemed to allow Naruto to take his time to ask and waited rather patiently. Naruto hummed in thought and then simply asked, _"What's your name?"_ in a cheerful voice, effectively surprising the lieutenant and breaking the majority of the tense atmosphere.

 _"_ I'm Nakamura Ethan, one of the lieutenants for the army of Kronos, the titan leading the war against the gods and eradicate those corrupt deities. Do you speak English, Uzumaki?" Much of the anger in his voice was gone as the methodical Ethan returned, realizing that the foreigner in front of him was possibly a danger. His sword was dodged and caught easily, and despite the careless ease that Naruto gave off, Ethan couldn't help but be extremely skeptical of this whole situation. He could be a spy, for all that the gods knew.

 _'This Naruto could actually be a spy considering that I just sent Roy over…Camp Half Blood maybe thought of the same thing? Annabeth's plan to send a Japanese demigod and land directly in front of my tent? Unlikely…that means that they had a layout of our camp, but they never left their station from the city. I also know all the demigods on our side, and he is a face I've never seen. I would recognize those clothes if I ever – wait, there's a simpler solution to this all.'_

"I don't speak Eng-rish, Nakamura. And Ethan…that's a rather interesting first name you got there!"

Before Ethan could retaliate, everyone in the camp covered their ears as an ear-piercing screech echoed across the sky. Directly above the camp, a flying creature blitzed across their vision in the direction of the city, its huge wings flapping powerfully to create gusts of wind that shook all of the tents violently. Naruto's blue eyes gazed at the creature in awe, his mouth agape in surprise.

 _"_ You guys have a dragon summon? I've never seen one before."

"Sometimes, I really hate **Kronos**. We were supposed to attack _tomorrow_ and I haven't even washed yet!" Ethan dropped his attention from the sky back to the teen in front of him. All anger seemed to dissipate from the lieutenant and only concentration and a strong-willed demigod soldier was left. "I am assuming you are a demigod and one of us starting today if you were able to make it this far into the camp without dying. I apologize for my ranks for attacking you. What you saw was not a dragon, but a drakon. Don't call it a dragon in its hearing range; it'll get upset."

"A dra…what?"

"Demigods! Soldiers of Kronos' army! Do not attack an individual dressed in a black and orange jumpsuit; he is with us!" Ethan ordered in a clear, echoing voice in the common language; that is, Greek. The whole camp gave one stomp as indication that he had been heard. "Set up your ranks and prepare to attack the city of Manhattan. Follow the plan and the mission, and we will win today!" Another stomp, and a roar of approval as their battle morale rose.

"Forward!" Another lieutenant roared with vibrancy in his order. The whole camp, encouraged even further, seemed to become even more alive with dynamic.

Naruto raised his fists and prepared to fight when he heard the camp roar to life. However, Ethan walked up to the blond and reassured him calmly, "No need for that; I have told them to be wary of you and leave you be. You will come with me. There is no one else here that speaks your tongue, and I am glad that you have returned our soldier. Buy me a new outfit after this war, and we will be well off, Uzumaki."

 _'So that's what the separation of the powers meant. There is about to be another war…and the cycle continues, it seems.'_

Ethan swore that he saw Naruto frown for a split second, but he was already grinning toothfully and nodded cheerfully at Ethan.

"Ethan-san, could you tell me why you are having this war, though?" Naruto inquired, some sadness in his voice. The last memory he had of his home village was its half destroyed state despite the intensive measure set out for rebuilding Konoha.

Ethan just sighed, watching the action lay out before him. All of the demigods and monsters on Kronos' side were grabbing their belongings and were marching towards the city, determination in their eyes and strength in their march. Naruto saw a few monsters and humans give the respected lieutenant next to him nods as they marched past.

"I am unsure if you actually need of explanation, but I will do so to amuse you. We are unclaimed. We do not have a home, and the gods have been unfair. Lord Kronos, a titan that birthed many of the gods with Rhea, called for war against the gods and promised to give us a place of belonging once he destroys Olympus, the home of the gods."

"I understand," Naruto said, voicing his empathy. He placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder and continued, "I really don't know what side I'm fighting for, to be honest, but I'll help you so all of those that have no belonging and homes will have one. And I'm ignoring the negative emotions of the creatures and people that went past by us as emotions of regret or anger against the gods. But I want to know, since I can sense negative emotions. Why are you so upset?"

"Because Kronos went against the plans, attacked a day early, and now I can't shower or show the world my style."

"…Alright. Fair enough."

Inwardly, Naruto was comparing Ethan to Deidara.

 **Chapter End.**

 **Omake:**

"I'm curious…how would you fight against a Cyclops, Naruto?" Naruto had told Ethan to drop the honorifics and the last name usage.

"A Cycle…bicycle - what?"

"A giant with one eye," Ethan expanded. "Its senses are rather dull, but it is a powerful monster that uses weapons equal to its size, and quite capable of destruction."

Naruto hummed for a moment, looking up to the sky with his eyes closed in thought, his forefinger and thumb on his chin to complete the detective look.

"Are they professional or precise?"

"No," was the immediate response.

"I'd squeeze a lemon on their eye then. Or stab it. But if I wanted to mess with the giant, then yea, I'd squeeze a lemon."

"…I see…" Ethan slowly drawled out, completely intending the pun. He mentally considered getting sunglasses to cover his lone eye. Pulling out his phone, Ethan messaged the group chat named 'Lord Kronos Bros Only', which was the chat of nearly five hundred demigods.

"I need someone to make custom made sunglasses for every Cyclops. Understood?"

Ethan allowed himself a small grin when he saw a text in blue that said, "Understood."

He only allowed iPhones on the side of Lord Kronos.

Idiots on the other side of the bridge; they could use the Internet without fear.

 **End Omake.**

 **A/N: Too much talking, not enough information. I had this whole plan for this story pop up, but it was so difficult in my mind. So I just got to writing, and this is what came about. I'm not mad, but I did have a different idea.**

 **It was supposed to be like a script, and it would break the fourth wall consistently. It's as if the whole story is in a set for a movie (because that's the whole idea). Like when Kronos dies, the actor would just…run off the set. It was a lot funnier in my head. I dunno.**

 **Cy**

 **KenzoXShuyita out!**


	2. A Titan's Knowledge versus a Library

**Chapter Two: A Titan's Knowledge versus a Library**

 **A/N: Thank you to chose that found my previous chapter funny. To those that didn't…shame on you. xD**

 **Just a quick clarification: Naruto cannot roll over Kronos. He** _ **can**_ **have a huge impact in the war to come, but he cannot steamroll the entire army on either side. Naruto is, however, very powerful. He's just not busted/broken.**

 **Review Responses!**

 **Tera12: Hey, thanks man! I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter and brought this to you as soon as I could! Hope you enjoy think update as much as the one before!**

 **Ultrachols: Haha glad you found interest in this random work I decided to pick up! An Annabeth and Naruto pairing is rather difficult, considering that there is significant buildup between Percy and Wise girl already. But if you got ideas to make it realistic, I'm all for it! Enjoy :D**

 **Wrath of the Sun Deity: Yea, I was thinking for a while…what could I do to make a unique crossover between the two storylines. This is what I came up with! Not executed particularly well, in my opinion, but all writing is practice and I'll get to a decent point eventually. Hope you continue to find interest in the following chapters!**

 **Supreme King of all Kings: I'm just glad you read my previous stories and said they were good in the first place. I am unsure if I'll be able to match your expectations, but I will try, that's for sure!**

 **Frekat: Thanks, my dude! I'm working on humor and comedy a lot more, so I do hope that you find the chapters even remotely funny!**

 **Guardian of the Inheritance: *cough* Ensue. Unless you purposely wrote 'insue', which is an archaic form of the word 'ensue'. If so…well played, good sire.**

 **MohamedOssama999: You're nice, too! Lul**

 **Dammyd: Thanks for the review, man! I appreciate your critiques, although I would like a bit less use of the word 'garbage.' I call myself that pretty often, but it kind of feels weird when told that from a complete stranger on something I tried on. Still, though, I do appreciate the fact you even took the time to review and lay out your thoughts!**

 **Aevun: I'm not entirely sure if there's meant to be a correlation. Omakes are just things I throw in for fun if I have random thoughts (I have a lot of them). But otherwise, I really hope that your foreboding proves false and the story is better than you expect!**

 **Otsutsuki no Yami: the boy was definitely not forgotten. And honestly, reading whatever is up to you! That's the beauty of fanfiction; there are so many creative writers and stories, you can pick and choose based on your tastes and preferences.**

 **Helrio uzugaku: Dude…I've had something worse than the Carolina reaper as spice and my god, I friggin loved it. But you right, my man. And honestly, I'm super honored that you even considered reading this fic based on what you've said on your stipulations for starting stories. And yea, we've got a ways to go until the plot is fully set in place.**

 **Max Moreno: Well, Naruto can't really be separated, so you are correct in saying Naruto is still there. And yea, a sage mode Naruto with Bijuu Mode would probably roflstomp Kronos in Luke's body since he's actually…kinda underwhelming?**

 **Kaladin storm: your review was also a welcome surprise!**

 **Bladetri: I give you a review in response to your like xD take that!**

 **And that's all the reviews responses for last chapter! Onwards!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Like…anything. A roof over my head, either. Halp**

 **Chapter 2 START**

 **For this Chapter, if Naruto is speaking, assume that it is in Japanese. If it is any other group, assume it is in English.**

In a fight between two people, psychological warfare is one way to beat an opponent before the battle has even begun. I'm not the best at it, but I have been told I'm absurdly annoying!

Naruto Uzumaki

"I thought you said you'd help us!" Ethan whispered angrily at Naruto, ceasing his walk. The blond stopped as well and raised his open hands in the universal sign of surrender and gave the other teen an uneasy smile.

"I did, but I never said that I was going to fight for your side. I just said that I wasn't sure what side to fight for and that I would help you, and all those without homes and a sense to belonging, find those things," Naruto reasoned, hoping his clarification would ease the turbulent tides of irritation that showed clearly on the surface of Ethan's face. It was just a bit harder without the eyebrows.

It didn't help. If anything, it seemed to exacerbate the frustration to new heights. Ethan marched up to the taller teen and pressed his index finger harshly against Naruto's chest.

"We don't have a place to call home! They do! You said you'd help those without homes."

"And does that mean I should be the one to take them away?" Naruto asked, a clear expression of disapproval marked on his face. Ethan was taken aback from the sudden shift in mood."I just got here and I don't know what's going on. You have no idea who I am other than I saved Roy from death by bringing him to you. I'm assuming he was a spy, considering how far from your camp he was, and that he was not supposed to make it back. I'm not sure who should be asking who for favors right now."

"Still-"

"Still what? I said I'd fight for the right for all of those without a place to have a place. Why does that have to include fighting, huh? You really think I can't feel the negativity of all of your soldiers?"

Ethan took a step back and closed his eye to try and remediate the situation in his mind. The person in front of him was obviously a valuable person to recruit, considering that he was able to make it to his tent without any harm. The fact that Naruto felt no ill will towards his ranks despite the premature attack was a godsend…not literally. He had to keep the orange-clothed soldier here, as best as he could.

"Look-" Ethan started, opening his eye and meeting Naruto's calm gaze. "Sometimes, the only way to achieve the things you want in life – the things you aspire for – is to fight. That's how life is. Whether it means years of convincing, years of effort, or lots of failures…it's just how history runs its course. And that's what's happening today. We're making history, to fight for what we need, because there is no other way." The two stood at a standstill until Naruto gave a silent nod of approval. "It's been this way for centuries, and the minor gods still get no kind of appreciation. The camp that we are fighting, they only have dorms for the twelve major gods. If they are a child of the minor gods, then they are stuffed into the house of Hermes, god of messages, boundaries, and trickery."

"How large was the room?" Naruto interrupted quickly, a serious look on his face.

"Not large enough to hold all of the unclaimed during the summer." Naruto's lips curled downward.

"So you've been to their camp. Lived with them, and yet you hate them and are willing to fight them. I'm sure there's some reason to this, but I want to hear it from you while you explain what unclaimed are," Naruto said, his voice perfectly even. Dangerously so.

'Shit, he got me. I didn't catch on to why he asked that question,' Ethan mused. He chewed over his thoughts for a moment before responding.

"Yes, I lived with them for quite a while. We are demigods, or children of gods and humans. As such, we have attributes of our godly parent and almost inherently pick up the culture of the Greek at a young age. The Big Three, which are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, all swore an oath on the River Styx, which they all could not follow."

Thunder rumbled directly above them, but Ethan took no notice of the obvious sign of a god's discontent.

"And there are nine others: Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. She is the brain child of Zeus. Demeter, the Goddess of the Harvest. Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt. Be wary of her as he hates all males. Dionysus, the God of Wine. He is currently the camp director of Camp Half Blood. Hera, the wife of Zeus and the Goddess of Women, Marriage, and Family. Despite that, she is also the most jealous and vengeful. Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth. Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Metalworking. And Ares, the God of War."

"…You expect me to remember them all?" Naruto asked, exasperated. Ethan deadpanned.

"We usually know all of those along with the minor gods, their traits, and the history of the gods from a young age. It's not uncommon amongst us demigods; we're just hardwired that way, as much as we're known to have dyslexia."

"What's that?"

"A reading disorder." Naruto just made the silent face of recognition in which his mouth made a circle and mouthed an 'oh'. "Many of us have heightened awareness in battle due to ADHD. It was made apparent to all of us at camp, although the majority of us knew from a younger age that reading was a chore unless it was in Greek."

"Reading sucks," Naruto acquiesced bitterly. Ethan just chuckled and continued.

"Thankfully, there wasn't much of that at Camp Half Blood, unless you were a child of Athena. I always saw that high-nosed Annabeth reading and looking down on others due to her knowledge. But she received recognition, as did many if they were children of the twelve. But us…" Ethan's face became darker as his mood dipped. "We were nothing. We were unrecognized, and unloved, and unclaimed. I found out who my godly parent was, but there are many in the world that has no clue. And it's because of the way the gods rule that this is so. That needs to change."

"…"

"I recall when I was there, I was lonely. I had my family as the Hermes cabin, and it felt genuine at first…but then everyone kept leaving and moving out, while new recruits came in and replaced the ones that had left. After a while, the cycle became dull and made me realize that things were not right with this world. Too many of them were unclaimed, and all of them had no style. It was frustrating to watch, so I decided to do something about it," Ethan explained, partial annoyance and bitterness in his voice. But Naruto also felt that Ethan didn't hate his old family in Hermes from the emotions he felt when the teen talked about them.

"About…which one?"

"Both, of course." Ethan began to walk again, so Naruto followed suit. The two were just behind the last stragglers of the camp. "But that's enough. I have to do battle and stand at the side of Kronos. It is my duty as the son of Nemesis to bring balance."

"You think that defeating the gods and overturning the rules of whatever is above will change everything? Wouldn't history just repeat itself?" Naruto asked, not turning to face the younger teen.

"It could. But there's the chance that it won't this time if we are the lucky ones to create a future that is easy to follow and preserve."

"Luck is not always the answer, and that's rich coming from me," Naruto rebuked, unhappy with the answer. He was the kind of guy to go in and make things work, and make it work through his efforts and presence. That's just how he was…except in gambling. He just let his luck take over, and he had yet to lose despite his hundreds of games.

"I'd love to say that because of me, everything went great. But that's not how it works with powers greater than us. We are pieces of a puzzle, and are hoping these pieces fit in ways that match in every way."

"You might not even have all the pieces to the puzzle."

Ethan didn't even skip a beat to that response. Aloofly, he replied, "Then so be it. Perhaps the next generation will. At least I was a part of the catalyst, and that, by itself, is an honor."

"…I do hope you create the future you want."

"I do as well. So, will you fight with us, Naruto?" Ethan asked, facing in the direction of the oncoming battle with only determination and grit on his features now. There was no aloofness. No more extra anger or irritation with style. With every passing step, Naruto felt the morale of the man next to him rise.

"I…cannot. I will help you, and I will fight to save you if I need to, but I cannot fight in this war and do not wish to partake. There were probably twenty very powerful sources of energy that I felt when I came into the area. Only one of them was extremely negative in emotions and vile. That one is leading your friends and monsters into battle. There's a trend that I've noticed in my few years of living is that those with dangerously negative emotions…they tend to be the ones in the wrong."

" **Lord Kronos** is _not_ wrong,"

"He's certainly not _right_ , either," Naruto said in return, emphasizing the word 'right' by raising a hand. "If he was defeated by his own sons, despite his many golden centuries of being the ruler, what does that say? He is no different from his father, who he had defeated," Naruto argued. Ethan narrowed his eye.

"I never told you that information…how did you know that?"

Naruto stopped and grinned as he turned his head to look at the second person he met in this world.

"You're a smart guy, Ethan. I'm sure I'll meet you again soon, but there's this…nagging feeling in my head. As if this giant, negative ball just pervaded my comfort zone," Naruto said a bit too amicably. Ethan immediately went on edge when he felt all of the hairs on his body bristle. Then, the air suddenly became cooler.

" **A giant, negative ball of energy,"** a deep voice reverberated behind the two. The voice sounded…heavy. Every sound from the male made Naruto grimace a little bit inside, as if his stomach was forcefully churned from the outside. **"There are have been far more creative insults that have been spoken in my name, child."**

Naruto casually turned around to face the speaker of the voice, whereas Ethan whipped around and stood at attention as quickly as he could. Before the two was another teenager in armor, except he had golden, glowing eyes that severely made Naruto get on edge. The teen had blond hair, a scar over his right eye, and a muscular build that spoke of professional strength and precision based on the lean, taught muscles. His face was angular and sharp, that of a stern, yet young leader.

" **Ethan, go lead your men,"** the newcomer ordered evenly.

"Yes, **Lord Kronos**." And Ethan turned and ran to the bridge to the front of the lines.

The two then stood still for a moment, eyeing the other. Naruto seemed uncaring, but he was on an eleven on a scale for vigilance as he faced on the titan before him. Kronos seemed amused, if anything.

" **You can look at me all you want, but that won't do anything, Naruto."** The titan's mirth and leisure was literally palpable. Naruto gave a fake grin and raised his hands to the back of his head as he switched off the weight between his left and right foot in a show of relaxation.

"Aw, that's not fair. You already know my eyes can't do anything, but I don't know if yours can," Naruto pouted.

" **Don't be silly. There are none can use their eyes to bend others to their will."** The violent glee was strangely still present.

"You're funny," Naruto let out without thinking, remembering the **Sharingan**.

" **You'd be the first to say so outside of my bloodline."**

"Should work on your jokes then, old man," the blond told the titan. The titan simply smirked. "So what do you want? For me to help your cause in this war? You know that's unlikely."

" **What makes you feel that it is so dangerous to work alongside me? You state that it is because of the negativity that surrounds my character -"**

"A part of it, yes."

" **-but is that all of the grounds of basis you have?" Kronos** completed, unperturbed by the interruption. Naruto, for all that is holy, simply shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't have enough information on his world and what's going on. You do have a negative vibe, and it is definitely not helping, though," Naruto admitted honestly. **Kronos** chuckled darkly.

" **The god of War, Ares, makes all those around him quiver in rage simply because he exists in those unfortunate enough to be in his presence simply because he exists. The god of Artemis strikes many as beauty and give women a feeling of solidarity. Those near Hestia, the goddess of the Hearth, feel warm and loved. I've only named three major gods, and yet these apply to almost every god in some way with varying degrees of strength. I have simply ended up with an aura that discharges negativity in a way that makes most uncomfortable in my presence."**

Naruto could see the reasoning in that. The **Kyuubi** was almost always described as a creature full of evil and hatred, but Naruto came to the conclusion that the chakra beast just wanted to be left alone before he was forced under the command of an **Uchiha**. He was unsure how it felt to be in the presence of the god of death in his world, but he was sure that it would have given him the spooks.

"Alright, fair enough. Doesn't change the fact that your eyes are glowing in a way that bothers me," Naruto threw out jokingly. He paused to bring his hands down into his pockets before continuing. "I assume you know how powerful I am?"

" **Strong enough to create quite the damage an army of average demigods on your own, but too weak to best me in a duel."**

Naruto grinned as his eyes lit up.

"Is that so?" he asked challengingly.

" **Titans and gods can level the world asunder. I do admit you are a powerful human, but even you cannot destroy everything."** Gone was the mirth. The cold had set in, and the face of the teen was focused with his lips in an even line. Naruto dropped his façade as well.

"You know…you don't have to be more powerful than the opponent to _win_. You just have to be strong enough to be in combat, have enough smarts to devise a plan, and have the guts to follow through with that plan. There's not much at all, considering you did admit that I can even be considered to be in a duel with you."

 **Kronos'** even lips dropped and it curved down.

" **Careful what you say, human." Kronos** warned, his eyes gleaming brighter in a threatening manner. Naruto coolly dropped his head slightly so the reflection of the sun off his headband beamed directly into the Titan's eyes. It had no effect other than sending a message…one that did not seem to amuse the immortal being.

"As to you, titan. I may be the one to defeat you just because I want information, which is valuable to any half-decent soldier. I'm trying to go back home, and this war is not something I particularly want to be involved in," Naruto told the being honestly. "Leave me alone, and everything will be fine."

The ninja stepped backwards to turn around, but everything began to run in slower motion. His thoughts were popping up at the same speed, but physically, he was wading through the thickest mud.

" **Is that a threat?" Kronos** asked, darkness and ancient power seeping into his voice. The air around the two became oppressively heavy as **Kronos** began to release a sliver of his power. Then, to the shock of the titan, the human before him turned back to face him in what seemed to be real time.

"You just got in my way…so it is now, Son of Ouranus," Naruto replied, his eyes chips of ice. Those orbs of deep, ocean blue that would usually give those that saw it comfort and heart now were stone cold, and the eyes of a veteran warrior. They were the eyes of one that had seen death and encountered deathly situations more than once. This was nothing compared to Pein, Orochimaru, and facing against his best friend. _This was nothing._ "You think you are powerful because you are a titan, but know this, lowly deity: I am not someone to mess with. I am the last person you wish to deal with when you are so close to a war. You've said it yourself: I am strong enough to level an entire army of average demigods, and that is enough to be a huge enough volatile factor to want on your side. And you just threatened that factor." His eyes narrowed, and the eyes became so cold that the gaze of the ninja would've frozen those in its sights if it were not a powerful being. " _I_ am Uzumaki Naruto, and I will kick your ass six ways to Sunday, and beat you again anyway just to prove my point. You can try your damndest to beat me or take me out the game, but you don't even have an inkling of a clue of what I can do, and there are thousands of sources on you. Sure, you're strong, but that little trick with time is hardly a trick. You're going to need far more than that to beat me, _**Lord Kronos**_ ," Naruto finished sarcastically, his threat very real. "I will take my leave now."

 **Kronos** snarled out **, "And what makes you think I will let you do so."** The strain on Naruto's body became much tighter as he felt time slow down even more and the air press down nearly twenty times harsher than before. But he just turned to face the Lord of Titans and gave him a threatening smirk, one that, for some reason, almost made the titan feel the need to worry. But that emotion wasn't necessary for a being like him, no. He was too strong for this measly mortal. **"Hercules was the most powerful demigod alive, and he would have been an absolute joy to beat around and play to death."**

"Because I think you're stupid. I already said information is one of the most important necessities before battle. You just lost the battle of wits and knowledge against me. Ethan was right; you don't stick to plans and you're dumb."

" **That boy called** _ **me**_ **dumb?!" Kronos** shouted angrily.

"And I agree," Naruto said cheerfully while sticking his tongue out and closing one eye in a playful mood. To finish off the pose, he gave a peace sign and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

' _Psychological warfare. Thanks, Kakashi-sensei.'_

 **Kronos** stared, dumbfounded as the irritable blond vanished into vapor. And then he let his true colors show as he growled furiously, clenching his fists tight enough to make his palms and knuckles white.

" **RAAAAHH! I will kill you boy!"**

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Library)**

' _ **Kronos**_ _has a time controlling technique…no it's just an area of effect. There are ways to work around that ability. Good thinking on my part to swap with a clone when Ethan turned away from me while walking to the bridge. I do think I can put up a fight…but not right now.'_

Naruto took a deep breath and looked up the ceiling of the establishment, which was curved upward at the top in a semicircle with beautiful glass panels that let in sunlight in alterations of colors. The library was a truly beautiful place, and far more decorated that he had expected. It gave him a very relaxed, comforted feeling…he needed that.

Bringing his attention back down, he gave his spectacles another nudge up his nose as he read the textbooks about Greek Mythology and English. In the library, there were currently hundreds of his clones, avidly reading anything they could grab related to the subject. To be honest, he really had to wonder what his clones were thinking though when he received information from a book called _'The English Language, for Dummies!'_ He hadn't even started on translating the language yet, so it was definitely quite an interesting knowledge gap with no foothold…so useless close.

But otherwise, the progress of learning was exponential. When he thought he had lost the **Kyuubi** in his stomach, he also strangely had far more chakra at his control…without the control aspect down. He was unsure if it was actually gone or not…but he wasn't about to say no to more chakra.

So now, some of his clones were training outside for chakra control by making his clones disappear without creating any smoke, and others were using the basic leaf training exercise, just on intermediate mode by hovering leaves all around his body rather than sticking to him.

All in total, he calculated about three hundred clones, since he wasn't particularly sure.

But back to the subject of studying; it had been fast work to be able to read and write English. The issue was speaking the language, since that was something the original had to practice. Hearing and dissecting the words of the language was no problem, but being able to make the shapes of the 'r' and 'l' consonants separately was a beast to take down.

It was yet to be defeated.

A few of his clones had gotten lazy from studying and decided to read random stories, some of which really piqued Naruto. For example, _'The Art of War'_ by General Tzu…his clones had really dug into that one and read the whole translated book in a few hours. It really made Naruto think about the different ways people interpreted war and how to keep up with their normal lives as soldiers and civilians. Things seemed so similar, and yet so different from home.

' _I miss home.'_

The blond grabbed the frame of the glasses and placed them on the wooden mahogany desk that the library had duplicated in rectangles for the recipients to use. Then, he placed his head sideways on top of the text he was reading, _'Japanese to English for the Mildly Intelligent!'_ Frustrating title, but he picked it up nonetheless just to do something. But some weird feeling was kicking in.

' _It's like…when Ero-sennin passed. I feel like another huge hole in me was torn open. I thought throwing myself into work and figuring out this world would help me get over this and this feeling would disappear, but it's not going away.'_ Naruto shut his eyes tiredly as this strange sensation of sadness and sorrow lightly ebbed in his head. It was so foreign…yet so similar. Shikamaru had helped him get out of his funk when he last felt so languid and tired… _'But I don't have a Shikamaru. I don't have anyone anymore to protect here. What's the point? If the only way to be truly strong is to protect someone, then am I weak now? Haku?'_

"Boss? Need a cup of tea?" one of the clones asked, fully understanding how the original felt. The clones were, direct replications of the original, which meant they all understood what the boss was feeling and thinking before their creation. All of the clones understood, so they threw themselves into work, knowing that the original would not be able to power through on his own.

"No. Thank you, though," the original replied without even opening his eyes. He heard the sound of glass clinking against wood and the smell of green tea wafting into his olfactory organs. A hand was placed on his shoulder.

"You do know we all know how you're feeling, right?" Naruto sighed at the clones rhetorical question. "We're doing the best we can to support you, and that's our way of being strong."

"And what am I supposed to do? I lost everything to protect, ya' know? In a way, you guys are supposed to protect and work with me. It's like a relationship, which we do have. And that's something I had with everyone back at home. But now…I don't know anybody," Naruto grunted out, anguish lacing his tone.

"You know Ethan."

"I just met the kid."

"Yeah, like how you just met everyone in the Elemental Nations and made them into your friends, and created your precious bonds with them," the clone replied strongly. "I know…and I mean it when I say it in the most literal sense, boss. I understand what you are going through, and maybe it's because I know I can only exist for so little time, but you got to do something."

"Can't a guy have a day to himself?"

"You're just going to let a war happen right at your doorstep without helping anyone? Minimizing damage? Preventing civilians and innocents from dying?" the clone asked disbelievingly, finally letting go of the shoulder.

"You and I both know that last one was a low blow and won't happen. They put the whole city to sleep, and the area of the nearest civilian is miles away from the bridge they were marching towards. That's what those clones reported when they went 'poof' anyway."

"You know what **Kronos,** the stupid titan said. He could level the world asunder, he boasted. A city is much smaller than a world; civilian casualties in a large possibility in the upcoming battle between the two sides. Expect the worst, hope for the best," the clone quipped. Naruto peeked one eye open.

"Where did you hear that? And since when were my clones smarter than the original?" he asked in a somewhat lighter-hearted tone.

"Since an hour ago, since we were reading and haven't gone out of existence yet. Duh." The clone smiled and sat down on a chair next to the original, the back of the chair in front of the body as he felt the desire to lean against the top. "But that quote means a lot, don't you think?"

"…"

The clone gave the original a half-hearted smile, but one filled with understanding and empathy.

"Hey, we're here for you, no matter what. You know that, right?"

Naruto couldn't help it. He felt his chest caving in as droplets began to edge out of his eyes. Clones…they had helped so much with his loneliness, even after he had made so many friends that he had promised to protect. It was always somewhere in the back of his head that he relied on the clones a lot not because it was a part of his fighting style particularly, but more for morale and mental strength. Summoning a thousand against one had no real effect other than intimidation, but it helped him feel like he had people besides him. But it was fake, and he realized that once he began to make real connections. With Iruka, with Team Seven, the Konoha Eleven, Gaara…everyone…

All gone.

He was back to square one, with fictitious relations with beings that only existed for a short period of time.

"Damn it all, _"_ Naruto cried out silently. "Damn this whole situation. This is the curse of having so much luck in my life…all of it gets converted to unluckiness in one huge go, and I get 'ported to where-in-Kami's-robes knows." Tears were now flowing freely, and the blond gripped the chest portion of his jumpsuit. A few of the nearby clones stopped their studies to look at the original, but none of them could do anything. The boss had to get over this himself…they knew that the most. They would do everything they could to get him situated in this new world and to assist him whenever possible and in whatever way, but that was it.

"Sometimes…that's just how things go. Shit happens, boss," the clone said wisely.

"… _Not like this._ "

…

…

A few minutes passed in silence, and the only sound was the flipping of pages and the quiet sobs from Naruto echoing weakly in the library.

"Boss," the clone began in English, breaking the silence. Naruto understood clearly and was mildly surprised by the lack of confusion when the clone spoke in the foreign language. "You were close, ya' know. But honestly…that's how life is sometimes. It's unlucky, and there's nothing you can do about things. What you do in those scenarios is do everything you can and more in whatever you have the ability to impact. Like learning English, beating the crap out of gods you didn't even know about, and finding new people to protect."

"It's not that easy," Naruto let out in a harrowing breath, responding in the same tongue. The clone took that as a sign to continue in the foreign language.

The clone laughed, slightly amused. "Since when did we _ever_ do easy? Our life has been on hard mode plus some this whole time. Easy is a walk in the park for us, boss!" the soon-to-disappear being shouted with strength and conviction.

It had done its job; Naruto gave a weak laugh and opened both of his eyes as he wiped away the stray tears.

"You're right, haha. Yeah…you're right, me."

"Of course I'm right! I'm you!" The clone joked. The few who heard that line gave a chuckle. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all night…as in the next five minutes."

"So," Naruto started as he put the glasses on again, regaining his composure and façade back on. The clone stood up and looked down at his boss, sad that the façade was protecting him from completely shattering mentally, but if that's what was necessary, then so be it. Hopefully, he could lend some flex tape figuratively and help Naruto's boat full of troubles float in the turbulent sea. "…you got any last words of inspiration or wisdom?"

"Yeah. This world and our home world ain't that different, boss. At least what the two sides outside are fighting for, it's essentially a battle of the lesser of two evils. Not everything is black and white, right and just versus wrong and despicable. The gods aren't perfect, but from what we've all studied and read up on, that titan leading the march against the gods of Olympus is bad news."

"You're right. **Kronos** is probably as evil as his vicious aura practically screams that he is," Naruto agreed quickly. No problems there. "Okay, so I help the side of Camp Half Blood and that Percy Jackson dude and Annabeth Chase. What happens then?" Naruto asked.

"You recreate your future!" the clone exclaimed, a sun-filled smile lit up on its face. And Naruto knew that that was the answer it was going to give. Just like how they understood and knew his thoughts, he partially knew theirs just as well.

A study came out stating that reading things aloud tended to help people memorize and associate things to the subject much easier than just reading. Another said that telling yourself in the morning what you would do in the day as a habit actually made a difference in productivity. Talking to his clone was very much similar to talking to a mirror. He just needed to hear the words he had been contemplating.

"…Thank you," Naruto said. "This is probably the first time I'm sad to see you all disappear."

The clone laughed and grinned at the original. "See! There's a first for everything!"

It saluted with a wink, and then vanished.

Naruto closed his eyes as the influx of memories rushed in. The emotions, the thoughts, the studies…everything came rushing in as his brain categorized it all. One by one, each of the clones began to vanish as well, their disappearance resulting in a greater library of knowledge for the original.

' _You got this, idiot!'_

' _I'm you, and you're me. I'm doing better than you right now, stupid original! Baka~!'_

' _LET'S GET IT!'_

' _Go kick some deity ass!'_

The blond couldn't help but to chuckle as nearly three hundred terrible inspirational quotes from his clones came in along with the necessary information and mental practice with chakra control.

Clones were such an interesting bunch…but he was glad to have them.

Square one wasn't so bad.

"Alright!" Naruto said as he stood up from his hair. He closed his book decidedly and kept the glasses on. "Let's go talk to Annabeth and Percy in person in English, since my clone could get nothing from them other than their names when he went into their camp."

He walked to the door, each step empowering him as he mentally prepared himself for what was to come.

There was a war outside, and it was coming.

But was so Uzumaki Naruto, bringing in a maelstrom.

 **Chapter 2 End.**

 **A/N: Yup, that's a second chapter a day after the first. Surprise surprise!**

 **Same ol', same ol'. Read, review, critique, etc. :D**

 **Naruto is strong, yes. He can battle Kronos in Luke's body** _ **if**_ **he uses all of his tricks up his sleeve, but he cannot straight duel the original titan, or any of the major gods in this fiction in a test of power. He is also lacking in control due to the increased about of chakra, so the Rasenshuriken is a no go. There will be no random blasts of gigantic explosions, sorry readers.**

 **But that's what I've decided and am going to keep with. Hope y'all are cool with that. If there are problems, lemme' know! There are lots of ways to just let plot happen!**

 **KenzoXShuyita out!**


	3. Another Meeting, Another Fight

**Chapter 3: Another Meeting, Another Fight**

 **A/N: And in comes another chapter, bam bam bam! Sorry, if you feel that the story is slow. This is just how it's going to be for a little bit.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Tera12: Thanks again! I hope this one is better than the last and more interesting, too! Hope you enjoy, as always.**

 **Guardian of the Inheritance: I swear I see your name all the time on my stories for reviews…and thank you! I hope I can get a great job someday, haha.**

 **Im-Bored-and-Gay: Glad the fiction got your attention! And yea, I'm trying a new approach, and hopefully it worked. Also, nice name!**

 **Doomqwer: I actually did consider that. Possibly later :D**

 **Blindguy95: Thanks, here's another update just a day later! Also, Naruto with six paths could possibly win a fight against the gods. Honestly, I think Kyuubi Sage mode is enough, but I'd have to do some research first. It's like…power level wise, I do know Naruto at his peak is at least Moon level. I'm not entirely sure how powerful the gods are at their max.**

 **What ever yo: Pairings will be thought through, don't worry. Not really sure who I want to pair him with at the moment, to be honest.**

 **Dragonfox123: You're interesting. Got'em!**

 **Max Moreno: If the gods do attack him, of course Naruto would defend himself and fight back. But that's a last resort and would probably never happen. Their priority right now (the gods) is to defeat the titans.**

 **Helrio uzugaku: I pray for your friend and bow in a random direction. I hope this chapter is still at an acceptable level.**

 **Ultracols: Ooo I like ideas. And keke thanks. Tell me what you find interesting!**

 **MohammedOssama999: Naruto has the ability to obtain information from his clones. I implied that he created a clone while with Ethan who was obtaining knowledge and dispersed, so then Naruto knew more.**

 **Bladetri: Super like xDDD**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Sad face.**

 **Chapter 3 START**

Percy sighed as he flipped through another blueprint of the city and analyzed the battle plans strewn about on the table. Attack through the bridge, defend using Greek Fire, use some of the inventions that the Stroll brothers made…the list went on and on. He had read this at least seven times, and heard the strategy from Annabeth at least three times the amount. But that didn't stop the girl from reminding him every once in a while.

Speaking of the girl, the daughter of Athena was standing across the table, looking at a holographic image of the city and was using her fingers to interact with the image with dexterity. Zooming in, flipping the image and analyzing specific area, Annabeth was at work and heavily focused on her current project. Percy watched the reflection break out from her glasses and eyes and lost himself in her storm grey eyes.

Hurricanes. Rainy days. A day inside to get away from the cold and draft. A fire inside the house…comfort. Hot, fresh food on the plate cooked from his loving mother, and her laughter filling the air.

What he would give to be at home and in peace.

"You there, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth spoke without looking up, breaking the boy across from his ruminations. The boy was leaning back against his chair with his head tilted up, his eyes closed in peace.

She felt the bubbles of guilt rising up, but she pushed the feeling down. Now was not the time to be lax. She truly wanted to give the leader of Camp Half Blood a break, but she knew that he couldn't afford to. None of them really had taken any time off, and the teens were beginning to feel the lack of rest physically tax on their bodies. But this was a once in a lifetime scenario; just a bit of over clocking wouldn't kill them.

"Yeah, I'm here, loud and clear."

"I'm not convinced." Percy had yet to open his eyes. Annabeth softened her tone as she spoke again. "We have to do this. We don't have a choice."

"I know, Annabeth…" The boy slowly opened his eyes and stirred softly in his chair. He sniffed for a bit before sneezing, earning a giggle from the girl across from his. Ruffling his hair to remove the hairs from his eyes, Percy leaned back forward so his elbows were on the desk and his right palm supporting his chin. "We've gone over these plans so many times, even someone as dumb as I memorized them down to the T. There could be other things we could be doing, you know."

The girl looked up from her hologram without turning it off and locked eyes with the son of Poseidon. A moment of silence passed.

"There. You blinked first and I won," she exclaimed with fake bravado, sarcasm dripping like hot syrup. Percy blinked again.

"I meant something else."

"Like what?" Annabeth was already back to her hologram and flipping between the notes she had. She took a moment to write another record into her notebook, fixing her hair before her ear before leaning down to write another entry. She let out an oath as she proceeded to make quick scratches over her papers. Percy raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't know you cursed."

She shrugged. "Trust me, I do all the time. You just don't hear it," she said. Another moment of silence as she continued to jot down in her notebook. Both of Percy's eyebrows were up now in consternation. He did _not_ know that.

The opening to the tent widened, letting in some more sunlight as Michael Yew, one of the campers from the Apollo cabin, walked in. He was an attractive kid with a scowl on his face at almost all time. He was also a bit short. He liked to describe himself as four foot six with an extra two feet in attitude. Annabeth thought the kid's humor fell flat. Percy found him hilarious; Michael had so many short jokes that Percy was always in good spirits around the teen, despite his bad temper.

"You two got a moment?" Michael asked, his arm holding the entrance open. Percy and Annabeth shared a look.

"Yeah, why not/Not right now," they spoke simultaneously. The two shared another look, slightly more competitive.

"I'm not doing anything right now," Percy told her, his hands raising with his palms up in a confused gesture. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Fine…" she sighed out in exasperation. "Do what you want." She turned to Michael. "What's the news?"

Michael smiled and widened the tent entrance a bit wider in response. Then, another person walked into the tent. Annabeth and Percy narrowed their eyes immediately.

"Who is this?" Annabeth asked suspiciously. She did not need Michael possibly bringing a spy into their camp at this time, especially after what transpired just a few hours ago.

"This guy painted some of the chest plates orange," Percy explained tiredly.

 _'Right…my clone.'_

The son of Poseidon sighed and squeezed the bridge of the nose, remembering having to calm down the Ares cabin as best he could. Next time Clarisse got mad, he was letting Annabeth taking care of that. Losing Silena was one thing; the prank on their armor immediately after tipped them over into rage all over again. "What do you want?"

"Okay, cold responses from everyone so far other than Michael here," Naruto started. Percy widened his eyes and raised his head. He didn't know the guy spoke in English; when Naruto was last in the area, he was yelling random phrases in a foreign language he didn't comprehend. Someone in the camp had said it was Japanese. So color him surprised, the boy spoke English. Heavily accented, yes, but it was understandable. "I just want to know what you all are fighting for."

"To protect the gods and ourselves. I want to make sure everyone from Camp Half Blood and all of our allies survive for tomorrow…and the next day. Whenever this battle ends…" Annabeth vocalized, clear conviction and hope in her voice.

"Why protect the gods, though? It's not like they're perfect. They've got a lot of flaws and have done a ton of misdeeds against humankind and their own race of deities." Thunder rumbled above, and lightning crackled nearby, landing on the lake and electrifying the surface. The backlight made Naruto seem far more menacing until the brightness diminished, leaving the three demigods with a smiling ninja.

The three demigods all flinched at the lightning.

"You probably don't want to say anything bad about the gods, dude," Percy wisely told Naruto. He added, "They have smote people for talking of them poorly before. Names have power."

"So what I said could have gotten me smited?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious.

Annabeth shook her head. "Smote. 'Smited' isn't a word," she explained, fixing her glasses after the correction.

"Grammar Nazi," Michael whisperd. Annabeth gave him a hard glower. Naruto wasn't sure what that meant, but he assumed it was some sort of insult.

"Besides the point. Technically, yes. All of gods have their own, special ways of rendering people useless or dead. For example, the thunder that rumbled outside was Zeus, the god of the Sky and _Theater_ ," Percy explained, emphasizing on 'theater' with a click at the end. He scratched his ear and his eyes roamed to the river. "My father, Poseidon, would create earthquakes, cause drowning and shipwrecks, and heavy storms and hurricanes if one invokes his wrath or offends him."

"Eh, I've seen people killed for less." An awkward pause. Naruto forcefully laughed and decided that this was the time to introduce himself. "Ah, so you're Percy. That means you are Annabeth, the daughter of Athena. I've heard you're smart! I probably won't be of much company to you, sorry," Naruto joked. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, by the way!" the ninja proclaimed, thumbing his chest. Oddly, he proceeded to stick his tongue out and whisper to himself for a bit. "Jeez, saying my name backwards feels so weird."

The two of them didn't even surprised by the fact that they were recognized.

"Here's the thing. Why not just...hmm." Naruto paused, lost in thought for a moment before continuing where he left off. "Can't you just talk to the gods and create cabins for the minor gods and let the unclaimed get claimed?" To him, it made very little sense that this was not already a thing, so he was hoping the two of them would be able to explain the politics of the gods to him.

Annabeth breathed heavily in annoyance, so Percy decided to step in. "Not really the best answer, but this is a topic that been brought up with the gods, and it just never happened for some reason. I'm not sure if its pride or whatnot, but it just never came to be. Sometimes, children are just forgotten because the gods have many children, but the majority of the unclaimed are from minor gods, so I'm guessing it has to do with some kind of decree or something of the sort."

Naruto crossed his arms and frowned, a dark shadow over his eyes as all humor left his expression. After a few seconds, he felt the need to say, "That's stupid."

Thunder.

"You specifically are the stupidest one, Zeus," Naruto declared without a pause.

The three demigods stared, agape at the audacity of the person before them. Michael decided to use this as an opportunity to leave the tent and tell everyone in the camp about what had just occurred. If anything, it would be funny and bring the morale up.

Annabeth was the first one to recover from her shock. "You can't just say things like that!" she cried out.

"I just did," the ninja replied evenly. "I honestly think this whole thing is stupid."

Louder thunder. Percy took that as his cue.

"Look, we get it. We're all strung up on this whole war and it's getting to us. Let's just all take a breath and move on to a different subject, like why Naruto is here," Percy counseled. He was praying it worked, but if the other male in the tent was stubborn, then Annabeth wouldn't drop it for sure.

"I still think the major gods are stupid," Naruto blurted out. Percy face palmed, cursing into his mouth.

 _'Here we go…'_

"What's your argument, huh?" Annabeth asked, clearly fully committed into the debate now. Naruto shifted his gaze over to the attractive blonde haired girl, whose grey, stormy eyes seemed to crackle with energy. It was almost as if this conversation was bringing her to life.

"I'm just saying, this whole war thing could have been resolved by now, or at least significantly more in your favor if the minor gods claimed their children."

"So you blame the major gods," she scoffed out. "Whose child are you?"

"What does that have to do with the argument?" Naruto asked, his arms still crossed but flexed instinctively when asked about his parents.

"I just want to know if your parents have any influence on your standpoint."

"It doesn't."

"I highly doubt that," she accused. Naruto's eyebrow twitched.

"I don't know who my parents are," he confessed. Percy's eyes hardly flinched wider, but Annabeth suddenly felt the need to pause the debate. Perhaps she'd been going too far.

"I'm sorry…" she apologized. Picking up her pen and twirling it awkwardly in her fingers skillfully, Annabeth wish she had just stuck to the actual argument.

Naruto, realizing the predicament, immediately gave a tooth filled grin. "It's fine, it's fine! I've gone sixteen years and I'm still alive. You're not the first to ask who my parents are, trust me!" Annabeth gave him a slow nod and a small smile. "But yea, my point is that if the major gods either allowed or decred-"

"Decreed."

"-decreed – argh, I'm sorry. My English isn't that good," Naruto explained abashed. "But either way, if they did do so, then you would have far more demigods on your side."

Percy and Annabeth both opened their eyes as their mouths slowly parted wider and wider.

"Wait…" Percy breathed out, barely a murmur.

"He's so right," Annabeth finished for him, almost barely audible. "That's so right!" she repeated, louder this time. "Argh, why didn't we think of that earlier?"

"Maybe because you two were so fixated on the war and how to deal with the demigods you never considered working with the demigods altogether?" Naruto proposed. Percy shook his head in disagreement. "Is that not it?"

"No, it's not that. I've tried convincing plenty of the demigods on who chose to follow **Kronos** , and they believe that he would make a better lord in the sky than the current gods in Olympus. And honestly, a lot of the demigods who aren't involved don't really care. They either do not know who their godly parent is and are safe from monsters, or are just choose to stay away from the conflict. The problem is that having **Kronos** as the new lord in the sky would not bring balance, at least not the way in which the demigods following him would wish for. In fact, he'd bring down chaos amongst all of us before taking over the world and making us puppets in his act." Percy looked down at the preparations and plans spread across the table once again before sighing. So many different plans if they had even considered telling the gods that this was a necessity above their pride. Then again, so many events could have been prevented if the gods didn't let stupidity rush to their head the moment pride kicked in.

"I mean…I don't know what to say for the demigods that aren't present. But for those on the other side, I can kind of see their point; the Olympians haven't really given them a big reason to be completely faithful nor to believe in them," Naruto said. He took a step over towards the side of the side of the tent and closer inside. "By the way, you don't have to worry about an attack tonight or tomorrow. The most of the battle is done after that _drakon_ whatever skirmishes went down so far. **Kronos** pulled back," he told the two.

"How do you know that?" Annabeth asked, curious. She didn't want to hear this and be let down immediately. In response to her question, a clone popped into existence next to Naruto with a barely visible wisp of smoke. It gave the two demigods a stupidly goofy face and then spoke in Japanese before disappearing. "What was that?!" she asked, amazed.

"Do you have a device that can create another version of yourself, like a hologram but real?" Percy inquired, excited. Naruto shook his head and smiled. "Or maybe you have a twin brother that's really fast?"

"Neither. It's a clone that I can create at free will by splitting my energy with them. And when they disappear, I obtain all of their knowledge and memories."

"How many can you create," Annabeth lit up. Naruto raised two fingers. "Two?"

"Two thousand right now," he clarified, smirking as their faces widened in amazement. "I can create more at full energy and with more control."

"By all that is holy…" Percy dropped his pencil. "I think we just won this battle with one casualty."

The blond shook his head. "I don't really know how strong a demigod is as I have yet to fight one. Splitting me into two thousand is a lot of energy being wasted if a clone can't at least get a one to one ratio. No, it's better for me to have a few at a time that are highly capable. Maybe ten, tops." He looked down and caught himself staring at the plans the two had written down, although a lot of it was in Greek. However, he could understand the blueprints. "Also, you don't even know if I'm a fighter."

"You just said a one to one ratio for each demigod, and said a few is better because they are highly capable," Annabeth pointed out. "Think before you speak."

Percy scoffed. "All hail, Wise Girl."

"Don't be sarcastic with me," she growled lowly. Percy raised his hands in surrender.

"Of course not, never."

Suddenly, the tent flap opened again as Michael ran inside. The three turned in to see the boy panting, sweat dripping down his face as he caught his breath.

"-at...hah – hah – attack!" He stuttered between breaths. All present felt their spines tingle. " **Kronos** pulled back on the main bridge but they – oh my gods I'm out of shape – hah – walked all the way to the left bridge with a smaller force to surprise us. There's about a hundred demigods and more monsters than demigods."

Percy immediately picked up a pen on the table and placed it in his pocket, while Annabeth grabbed her baseball cap and stood up. When the two walked outside, it was to a bustling camp with hundreds of campers running to and fro with confusion and excited energy. They set off at a brisk pace in the direction of the bridge of subject, calling in specific people for the defense.

"Ares Cabin and Michael Yew, with me. Apollo Cabin, let's go!" Percy shouted, his voice loud and clear over the rest of the camp.

"We're coming, little pissy!" responded a gruff voice. Percy rolled his eyes at Clarisse' moniker for him and moved on.

"Aye aye, Perce! Let's go boys!"

He eyed Annabeth. "You should stay. We need someone to lead them if someone else attacks."

Annabeth frowned. "Yeah, you know I'm not doing that Seaweed Brain. We got others to lead them, just in case. I need to be with you so you don't die."

"I'm not going to die," Percy argued. Annabeth just gave him a cold stare, and he felt his will wilt to the wind. "Al-alright, you can come."

"I didn't need your permission in the first place."

"Right…"

"How about…you two let me fight and bring some backup?" Naruto spoke out. All of those in hearing distance couldn't believe their ears. "I think I chose which side I want to be on."

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Two miles from camp)**

"I can't believe we agreed to this," Annabeth said, slightly hysterically. "I mean, this is crazy! He's going into them all by himself? Even you wouldn't do that with the curse of Achilles on you!"

"Yeah, but he said he can create clones," Percy pointed out. "He probably can create them at will to take the hit for him. And besides, you should be busy recording him like he told you to."

"Are you that much a pussy that you won't go out here?" Clarisse taunted, clapping Percy's shoulder harshly. "Scared, are we, little son of Poseidon?" If she was hoping to get a rise out of him, he failed.

"He said to watch, and I felt something that told me to trust him, so that's what I did. We will all stay on standby, and if you see any fly into the air, our archers can shoot them down," Percy told them, earnest in his eyes. "I trust him," he confessed.

"What? We just met the guy! For all we know, we could've just sent some kid off to die on his own," Annabeth exclaimed. "Oh gods, we are not doing this. We got to go in."

But it was too late. Naruto was hundreds of meters away from the allied group, his silhouette becoming smaller and smaller as he continued to walk away from them and towards the opposing force of nearly three hundred. Demigods, giants, Cyclops, and hellhounds were all visible, waiting with bloodlust. They could feel it from across from their location halfway across the bridge.

The distance was closing. He was a hundred meters away.

Ninety…

Eighty…

Sev-

The distance was suddenly gone as Naruto blurred out of vision.

" _Take this, dattebayo!_ " echoed across the bridge.

And a giant toppled over from the force of whatever hit it, its eyes shut in pain as it roared in anger. Another force hit it, and the sound of the hit echoed all the way back to Percy and co. This time, the giant yelped and remained silent.

"…Okay, what was that?" Percy blurted out. Suddenly, he remembered something…something so important that someone's life could have depended on it. It was… "Annabeth, get your camera!"

Naruto was having the time of his life. His blood was rushing, and he felt the high of fighting without the risks of having his home destroyed or his close friends killed. It was just a bit of him and them action with no repercussions other than him dying if he failed. He could deal with that; this was another Wednesday to him.

He dropped into the middle of the enemy forces, and there was immediately a circle around him, almost as if they were hesitant to attack when they saw how quickly he had dispatched the giant.

"Come on, I don't got all day, _dattebayo_!" he taunted with a smirk, giving one random demigod the 'come on' gesture with his fingers. The taunted demigod gave out a warcry and charged forwards with his axe, blitzing the blond as quickly as he could. When the two were in proximity of each other, the charger swung his axe in a deadly arc that was meant to cut the teen's head off. Naruto quickly ducked and spun with his right leg out, sweep kicking the boy and making the opponent lose purchase with the ground before righting himself quickly and roundhouse kicking him while in the air, sending the now unconscious teen crashing into one of his friendlies.

Hearing another shout behind him, Naruto chuckled as he lazily pulled out a kunai from his pouch and parried a sword without looking. With the new hostile successfully forced to lose balance, Naruto spun on his feet skillfully before kicking him in the head hard enough to leave a dent in the helmet. The second unconscious flew a good fifteen feet, and then bounced on the ground twice before finally coming to a stop.

"Ah, rookie mistake. You shouldn't scream if attacking from behind, ya know?" Naruto yelled cheerfully as he punched another demigod in the chest plate hard enough to leave a crater in the armor, knocking her away and sending her flying into the river. "Eh…she can survive a couple hundred foot fall; Percy said demigods were more durable than the average human, right? Could one of you check on her?"

Two splashes reached his ears, and he couldn't help but smile. At least one person seemed to care.

Having had enough of them coming to him, Naruto decided it was time to amp it up. He blitzed in, hardly visible to the demigods as he sped the group and towards the giants and hellhounds in the back. Ducking under an axe swing, Naruto slid on the ground for a good twenty feet before applying chakra to his legs and feet to empower him when he flew straight at the nearest giant like a rocket. The second giant to have the misfortune of encountering and engagement didn't know what hit him…literally. Naruto brought his leg up and shouted, " _Dy-nam-ic En-tu-reeee!"_ The giant's face caved in as the leg forced the head to turn before knocking the creature off its feet and careening in the air. Before it landed, another giant and Cyclops were down from Naruto slicing behind the knees of the giant with his kunai and squeezing lemons into the eye of the Cyclops.

The Cyclops gave a high pitched scream as it swung its club in its literal blind rage. Instead of hitting the elusive blond, who laughed next to a demigod before jumping quickly to dodge a swing, it was hitting allies with all the force it could muster with its bulging muscles. One of the smarter Cyclops decided to put an end to this by knocking its own brethren out of the fight, but Naruto only began the cycle again by jumping onto the shoulder of his new victim and squeezing double the lemon into its eye.

"Woah!" Naruto let out, dodging an arrow by twisting his body. Hearing the twang of six more strings, he jumped off the shoulder of the Cyclops and flipped three times, dodging each projectile narrowly. As he neared the ground, Naruto caught sight of a few demigods preparing to slash him or stick him with their recently whetted blades in the air. "Nice try," he yelled, throwing his kunai directly into the center of the five demigods lying in wait.

 _'Substitution Technique!'_

Suddenly, Naruto was on the ground with his legs straight up and hands crossed. The demigods didn't have time to react as the ninja spun quickly in a circle twice, helicopter kicking the five of them in the face in quick succession four times each, and then lowering his leg while still spinning to sweep them all off their feet. Right as he finished spinning, two hellhounds pounced at him, attempting to reach the blond to bite anything it could. The ninja pretended not to notice the two monsters nearing him at a frightening velocity before whipping his head around, only one lone eye visible. It was as cold as the arctic.

"We got some bad doggies here," he whispered icily. The hellhounds landed, but they bit nothing but air. Naruto blurred into vision in the air with the kunai he had switch places with in hand in a reverse grip.

 _'Ah right. Annabeth did tell me that my weapons wouldn't work, so Clarisse told me to just beat them into submission.'_

Strengthening his raised arms, Naruto dropped to earth at sonic speed by using wind to push him down. Then, he brought his arms down on the two hellhounds with enough power than the bridge shook and spiderweb cracks spread out from underneath the dissolving monsters.

 _'Hmmm…so you don't need to use any elemental techniques to kill them. A decent amount of force is all that's required.'_

Then, all on the bridge felt it. Cold seeped into his veins, and time seemed to slow down. Naruto turned around and caught the sight of **Kronos** leisurely walking towards him.

 _" **All of them, so useless. Such a tragedy. We could have used you, you know? I would have had you as my right hand man and we could have ruled this world together."** _Kronos was looking to his left at the turbulent river. Then, he turned his focus and met Naruto's eyes with his golden orbs. **_"Really, such a tragedy, befitting for my son Zeus, god of Theater."_**

Naruto coughed into his mouth casually and humorously blurted out, " _Not interested._ " A pause. "The boss man finally showed up, kek…Uh…I speak English, just saying."

 **Kronos** narrowed his eyes. " **I knew that**." Naruto chuckled at the obvious lie. **"What are you laughing at? I am not one to trifle with!" Kronos** yelled, the titan's rage rising.

Naruto grinned wildly. "Why are you here anyway? Did Ethan chastise you for attacking early and call you stupid, and then you decided to be sneaky and launch a surprise attack?" **Kronos** scowled. "Oh, was I right? By Kami, you are so simple, old man, haha!"

 **"Silence!" Kronos** ordered, the air becoming so heavy that many of the demigods and monsters felt difficult breathing. It was as if there were a ton of bricks on top of their lungs and they also couldn't take full breaths of air.

Naruto noticed this and ran straight at **Kronos**. Simple, just like the titan would like.

 **"Bow before me, child**." Time became a liquid…one that traveled exceedingly slow. **Kronos** stepped forward to the charging Naruto, who was currently mid stride, and met his gaze. **"Kneel**." The titan began to force the ninja to his knees by pressing on his shoulder. His brow furrowed and forehead creased with lines when he felt an extraordinary amount of resistance. **"…Impossible. I am a titan!"**

"You shouldn't scowl so much; you're going to have wrinkles when you get old," Naruto chastised. The titan only glared harder. If looks could kill, the blond before him would be sour, curdled milk. "Also…you should really get to know your opponents before you pick your fights if you have the time…idiot."

 **"You dare!"**

"Yes," a voice said behind the titan lord. Naruto had disappeared from his grip, and only a falling kunai was in his place. "I dare, stupid titan." **Kronos** was hardly able to turn his head around in time to catch the blond winding up for a punch. The ninja's eyes had turned yellow with a horizontal bar across each that eerily reminded him of a frog, and there were orange pigments that decorated his eyes, much like makeup. "Get destroyed, _dattebayo_!"

Percy Jackson, Annabeth, Clarisse, Michael, and the two cabins that had come to the blond fight watched with slacked jaws as they saw the titan lord of time sent flying a hundred feet into the air. They were planning on helping the blond, but watching his dispatch the monsters and demigods alike with an expert's ease and skill and kept them glued to the spot and their eyes watching the blond dance through the enemies. And now, they all watched with bated breath as the blond damn near flew up to meet the titan. Flipping to gain momentum for a drop kick, Naruto was about to crack his heel against the titan lord's neck before he felt everything slow down much more. And then…he was frozen.

 **"Enough, _boy._ I know how strong you are and will no longer underestimate you; you are too much of a threat and will die today by my hands." Kronos **summoned his scythe, prepared to cleave the blond in two and end this fight. Fun, yes, but he posed a foil to all of his plans. This had to end now. He began to swing the deadly weapon in a lazy, slow arc. **"Goodbye, Naruto Uzumaki."**

The blond watched with wide eyes as the sharp, long end of the blade came closer and closer…and so criminally slow. When it was just about to begin to cutting across his jumpsuit, however, **Kronos** saw the blond give him a cheeky grin. A grin that felt so evil, and so full of mischief that he instinctively felt a need to go on the defensive. But he was given no time to think about why he had that feeling until he felt himself being forced downward.

"Stay the hell down!" Naruto shouted as he dropkicked the titan with all the momentum he had built up from flipping earlier. The titan lord crashed into the bridge in the next instant, nearly causing the structure to split in half. It creaked and groaned as the structure ached to stay together. Then, it finally remained still and intact, but the area in which **Kronos** had landed had a giant, ten foot crater with the titan at the locus.

The titan quickly stood up, not even seeming the lightest bit injured, but all the more enraged. He watched as **Kronos** stared up angrily, the titan's gaze dropping and Naruto returned to the earth.

 _'Now is probably a good time to back off. If he goes full out against me, I don't really have a chance at winning right now.'_

When the blond landed, there was a wide circle around the two who were nearly fifty feet apart. The blond stood tall and calm, whilst the titan across from his was breathing heavily with fire in his veins.

 **"Oh…you are dead, Naruto Uzumaki. You are dead, and I will make sure I find your parents and all your relatives and kill them. Not only you, but your whole line will no longer exist!" Kronos** promised, rage seeming to raise the volume of his voice.

Naruto, instead of replying, chose to diligently clean out his ear with his pinky, and then look at what hidden treasures he could find. "Oh…that's _gross_." Then, he looked up aloofly at the titan in a human body, who was practically salivating with fury. "Well, I'm now certain that you are my _enemy._ I don't have family or relatives that I know of. But if you said my friends…"

The air saturated with density as the blond released his killing intent. Many of the demigods began to see delusions of their own deaths and demise, and they pleaded for the visions to stop. The hellhounds whimpered. The giants cowered. The Cyclops closed their one eye.

Only a few stood amidst the killing intent, but almost all other than **Kronos** was extremely wary of the ninja.

"I wouldn't just send you back to Tartarus…and that's a promise," Naruto whispered, the deadliest venom in his voice, but **Kronos** heard.

And then, the killing intent disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Naruto sported a grin and gave a spin and then bowed gracefully to them all. "Thank you for your participation. I now suggest you leave and do not stalk me! Good night everyone and see you tomorrow!"

A moment later, a log substituted with the blond. It had a paper stuck onto it with a picture of a poorly drawn chibi Naruto giving a peace sign with a wink. And then the paper began to set on fire.

Back at the other end of the bridge, Naruto faced the group of demigods from Camp Half Blood with a grin.

"So, did you guys enjoy the show?"

The audience simply slowly nodded their head in unison, dumbfounded. Percy was the first to break out of the spell as he ran up to Naruto with a whoop.

"Holy sacks of jewels, you wiped the floor with **Kronos**! You're amazing!" Percy shouted with exuberance.

"That was extremely impressive," Annabeth added modestly, but Naruto could tell that she was inwardly thrilled.

"Not a pussy," Clarisse voiced confidently, pitching in her own two cents. Whether it was necessary to state her opinion or not, that was up for discussion. Naruto just gave her a look and asked –

"What's a pussy?" with all the innocence in the world, his expression filled with confusion. Percy found it amusing, and Annabeth thought it was cute.

 **"I will have your hea-" Kronos** roared, his voice clear until -

"Boom," Naruto commented.

\- An explosion rocked the bridge where Naruto's picture (read: explosion tag) was left, making it creak once more in its struggle to remain intact. This time, the bridge couldn't hold together, and they all watched as the suspensions near the explosion began to snap off like twines. The crater that **Kronos** had created widened as the cracks spread further and further until the bridge separated. Monsters and demigods fell all the same into the water. The titan lord somehow managed to escape the fate of many of his soldiers, but that left him standing mostly alone and staring in retched anger across the bridge.

Naruto turned around, deciding that he didn't like the staring contest with **Kronos** anymore and preferred the welcoming faces of the other team.

"So…" he started awkwardly. "Uh…at least you guys don't have to worry about this bridge. Can I join your side now?"

Michael grinned and nearly shouted at the blond with gusto, "Man, you got at least two feet in attitude also!"

Naruto gave the short dude a thumbs-up and a mega-watt grin. "I'll take that as a yes."

On the way back to the camp, Naruto had gotten quite a few claps on the back and met all the members of the Apollo and Ares cabin, of which he had received quite a different reaction.

The Apollo cabin was exuberant and…very quirky. Naruto shared a lot of laughs with the sunny bunch and felt that he was opening up…if even if was only a little. The Ares cabin was also very aggressive in their advances, immediately grabbing Naruto in a chokehold to show their appreciation. Many of them challenged him to an arm wrestling match when they got back to camp since sparring with a weapon or even with fists were considered too risky or energy intensive at this time.

It was fun. It was nice to be making new connections, but at the same time –

 _'I'm scared to make connections if I go home and never see these people again.'_

 **Chapter End.**

 **A/N: Goodnight.**

 **Please, as always, leave reviews, your thoughts, things to work on, etc. I would like this story to grow and improve as it gets longer.**

 **Thank you, as always, for reading.**

 **Cy**

 **KenzoXShuyita**


	4. Loyalty

**Chapter 4: Loyalty**

 **A/N: Here I am, one week later. Blugh. I got busy, so I only had a few hours to write this. I hope y'all enjoy it, still!**

 **...before I respond...there's a lot of flames. If there's even a bit of constructiveness, I'll respond. However, to the people that are just flat out rude, I'm gonna be honest: leave. Go spread your hate elsewhere; better yet, stop spreading hate. Be constructive, not destructive.**

 **Review Responses to Chapter 3:**

 **Dragonfox123: Thanks, my dude! I'm glad you enjoyed reading my work!**

 **Issy786: I didn't think of it like that, but that's pretty much exactly what Naruto is capable of. He would curbstomp almost all demigods, but would have a difficult time fighting against higher beings. Oath was on purpose, by the way! :D**

 **Max Moreno: Always fear the lemons! Kekeke**

 **TBM10: Satyrs may notice, but it's doubtful to say he was the second coming of Pan. And naw man! Thanks for reading and reviewing, I appreciate it!**

 **Rikudou Naruto156: What would Naruto at this stage of the game be, however? Pein Arc Naruto with Sage Mode at his disposal? City buster?**

 **Im-Bored-and-Gay: I probably won't make Naruto a child of a deity. He'll be a regular shinobi, and mortal.**

 **helrio uzugaku: Geez, glad your friend's doing better, my dude. And thanks for the worry! I took some time for myself and got some fresh air and wrote when I felt like it! Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

 **The Silent Fan: Here's the next chapter! And I really appreciate the load the information!**

 **Beast Mode92: Haha, I'm glad you find the story entertaining! I'll do my best to keep up the level of enjoyment!**

 **Lazymanjones96: I hope this remains interesting!**

 **ultracohls: I tried to be fast, but I took a short break! Sorry keke. I am soooo bad with romance stories, sorry. But I do enjoy reading them, along with anime and manga. I've watched/read all of those except for Digimon. Couldn't get into it for some reason :P**

 **X-Ownz: I appreciate it! I hope this chapter is up to par :D**

 **ultima-owner: Naruto is indeed the number own hyperactive, unexpected ninja!**

 **Yorae Rasante: Speed is a good counter to those who don't know how much time dilation is required :P**

 **Akren Alumni: Ah...good for you? Although I am also really hyped up for the new game! Too bad it's next year...on the 13th month of 2018 Kappa.**

 **MohammedOssama999: Yup, Kronos is completely unaffected by an explosive tag, especially with his Curse of Achilles. It's more of Naruto's way of backing up.**

 **Anon: Uh...woops :P**

 **Guest: will do!**

 **Shadow: lol Thank you**

 **Someone: Thank you someone! Yup, little details here and there! :D Glad you picked it up**

 **Riverdog: That's seriously a hard pairing to complete. Sigh...now to think more.**

 **Guest: I'm unsure what you mean.**

 **Monster King: Thanks man! I'll keep putting in effort for this story as long as there's decent reviews (criticisms) and good vibes...and motivation!**

 **The Sorrowful Deity: That's just how he is as a person. It really does suck, though.**

 **Rio Skyron: Thanks! I hope you keep on enjoying the story!**

 **And that's it! Now, onto the story!**

 **Chapter 4 START**

"How in the name of the gods did you do that?" Percy asked in wonderment, shock written all over his face. He couldn't believe his eyes, despite seeing the events that had unfolded before him. It was as if the blond had become one with the air and vanished all over the battlefield, before reappearing again. The short two minute fight that had taken place, if it could even be called a fight - it was more a _massacre_ in the opposing forces eyes, and Naruto playing with his food in his own perspective - had shook the boy down to the bone and deeper with amazement and awe. His blessed eyes could keep up with the swift teenager that wore his headband with pride, but there was no way that he would be able to follow with his body if he ever fought the boy.

Still, it befuddled the son of Poseidon, as he had never heard of someone that fought so quickly, especially since the lord of the titans could casually slow down time against his enemies.

Naruto grinned at Percy's question, only slightly abashed at the fact he was relishing a nuance at the attention he was receiving.

"I moved," he replied, stating the obvious while smirking. To hell if they all thought he was going to tell them all of his secrets, nor some of his basic techniques without messing around with them first. Once a prank master, always a prank master. They didn't need to know how fast his maximum velocity was. That was for him to know, and for all, friends and enemies alike, to figure out. He'd let everyone underestimate him...especially **Kronos**. The titan had increased his hold on time, but only to what he assumed was enough to get a tight hold on the blond. Naruto as far faster than sound on a casual basis. **Kronos** would need to utilize far more power, which he almost did against the blond, to possibly shut him down with his time dilation.

"No one moves like that, Naruto. If anything, I'd even assume that you were a god of air or wind. Are you actually human?" Annabeth asked, speaking her own opinion. Her eyebrows were raised and wrinkles were beginning to pronounce themselves on the top of the bridge of her nose as her thoughts took her deeper and deeper into the land of heavy imagination and analysis.

Naruto frowned at the assumption and crossed his arms, but that didn't stop his gait. He was still in too much of a good mood. "I'm not a god. Besides, aren't you all technically not human either?" he retorted.

In the end, the demigods had let it be, albeit they didn't let up in their questioning of other things, such as his origin and alliance. The blond had simply responded with very much the same attitude; quips and casual retorts that gave them almost no information. By the time they had gotten to camp, it was Naruto asking them the questions about the world and gathering information and learning more about the existence of the gods and all other primordial, powerful beings. He had learned from the demigods that Zeus had a weapon so powerful it could make the atom bomb look like a firecracker...which did not mean much to the blond as he did not know what an atom bomb was. After a bit of explanation, Naruto could honestly say that he was impressed, and it made him wonder -

"What is Zeus doing if he could just shoot down the titan lord?"

Annabeth gave the blond a frown as she pulled hair behind her right ear, her eyes stormy, as if in thought. Now that she thought about it, why _couldn't_ the god upstairs simply knock the titan off his rocker? The argument could be made that Typhon was coming - that was inevitable - but that would still mean the main banner of the whole war would be over. Their king would be dead, and gone would be the majority of their morale - hopefully. At the same time, however, **Kronos** was conveniently positioned with many demigods. They were children of minor gods, but demigods nonetheless.

"It's too dangerous for the innocent," she replied. Naruto gave her a bemused stare. "Even if he doesn't use this Master Bolt and decides to use a weaker lightning bolt at his command, he's still too well positioned in the enemy camp near many demigods. Hundreds, or thousands, of lives would be lost. Our whole goal is to prevent that from happening while gaining an advantage in this war."

Naruto found that whole argument entirely strange. It was so...left field. He was used to casualties being the norm when it came to war; saving enemy ninjas just because they were ninja, if a war broke out in the Elemental Nations, did not make sense to him. This was an all-out war, and he stated his opinions and observations as such to Annabeth, but the blonde girl kept a vice-like grip on her own impression and judgments of what was to be done about this whole situation that Naruto left it be. It was not that she was wrong, or in any way incorrect about her actions; Naruto assessed that there were just...better ways and far more efficient methods to end this war without possibly losing it.

So he brought up the idea of talking to Ethan Nakamura. Percy rebuked this plan, saying that the whole thing would go up in flames.

"There's no way that would happen. He's betrayed us and is now a lieutenant because he thinks he's _right_. He's a son of the minor goddess of balance, Naruto." Percy leaned back in his chair and breathed in deeply before blowing the air out harshly. This plan was really poorly designed in his books, and he wouldn't consider himself the greatest planner. Still, to humor the newcomer, he asked, "How are you going to change his mind?"

"By talking to him?" Naruto told the two.

Annabeth felt her fist clench unconsciously. Percy chose to drop his pencil on the desk and laugh.

"You think we didn't try?" Annabeth growled out, feeling accused of a lack of effort. Naruto shook his head in rebuttal.

"No, I'm sure you gave it your best. It's just..." he paused, searching for the right way to put it. It wasn't that the two teens right in front of him didn't give it their all; that wasn't it at all. It was more like... "I just think I could handle this differently, you know? I'm sure I can get some kind of idea in his head about a different kind of balance."

"Like what?" Annabeth asked in a suspicious tone. She couldn't believe that she was even continuing this conversation instead of spending her brain power on something more necessary, like the battle plans for tomorrow. In her mind, perhaps a good two thirds were complete, but that wasn't enough to encompass all of the possibilities of attack or methods of invasion, even with the destroyed bridge out of the way. But here she was, not putting the finishing touches on her plans, despite the sun almost dipping over the edge of the world and bringing with it night, chatting away with a wayward blond that had very little backing behind his talk.

Naruto brought a hand to his chin and gave a 'hmmm' as he stared at the ground. His eyes lit up. "Have you considered telling him that **Kronos** taking over would not create balance?"

Percy and Annabeth dropped their jaws, and silence took over the tent for a good ten seconds.

They. Had. Not.

They hadn't considered telling Ethan that. Forget the fact that there would be necessary convincing and all sorts of stuff after; the most important thing is that it would get Ethan to talk. To _listen_ , and that was something that Percy and Annabeth have both failed in multiple occasions.

Naruto left the tent with two thoughtful demigods and decided to go his own way and he considered his own problems. Lack of control, lack of knowledge, and no real alliance to either side. Oh, he did not want **Kronos** to win, but he didn't consider the gods completely fair either. Comparing these gods to the gods and deities of his world was hardly a comparison; the gods of his world were cruel, unfair at times, but mostly righteous and kept things in balance. Pettiness was hardly something used to describe the gods of his world, but in this world, it seemed to be the perfect word, always prepared to be thrown at from the tip of the tongue whenever a god was brought up.

All of the demigods that saw Naruto walking about gave him a wave or a gesture of good faith, which he returned in equal means of good nature. A few satyrs approached him, wondering why they felt so attuned and welcomed by his...natural presence. Once they realized he did not know who Pan was, they left him be. It didn't change the fact they were still interested in him; the blond seemed slightly overwhelmed and they decided to give him some space.

Naruto was unsure how to feel about all of this...attention. He had received the respect and admiration of his peers once he had defeated Pein and all of his fellow shinobi were returned to life from the grave of the dead, but that was a one time thing. It was something he was still not particularly used to; it didn't mean it was unwelcome, however. It gave him a sense of belonging and welcome, as well as a warmth in his stomach that spread comfortably all throughout his body, the tendrils spreading from its roots to the furthest edges of his fingertips. It was a feeling he wanted to keep and cherish, protect, and hold onto for as long as he could.

But feelings were something that were constantly in motion, like a river. It was adrift, almost as if it were caught in a wind, in a direction that was held in another being's control. There were days when Naruto felt off, as if everything about the day was gray and boring. Nothing on those days made him feel alive, and he thought of himself as a machine. No, not a machine. More like another cog, or piece, in the large machine, the big picture of things. But he wanted to be the largest piece to the puzzle, the most influential portion to the machine so that he could determine how he felt. Naruto had done his best to make this dream of his almost a reality in Konoha, but now thrust into a whole new world, he lost himself for a moment in loss and despair.

But his clone was right. He had to focus on the now and leave his home as a problem for later. Didn't mean he had to forget, but he had to be aware of everything happening in this new world right now. The hardest solution was the simplest one as well. It was time to refocus and to create once more. A masterpiece was lost, and there was _almost_ no way to set it right and find it again? As upsetting as it may be, the most logical answer Naruto had found to this whole crapstorm of a situation was to move on for now, as impossibly difficult as that may be, and to become a new, important part to the puzzle. He'd leave his home in the back of his head and he'd be the one to uplift others, and to be not affected by others as much as he could. His dream to create a world where he would be recognized, to be admired, and to be in the midst of constant adulation from his own efforts was still very real. So were his aspirations of peace, to succeed in where in master failed, and that would require strength, as well as something to protect. And all of this, just in another world, most likely before he achieves this in his home.

Thankfully, this world had made one part of it easy for him. There was obviously something to protect in this world, and it was to defend the Olympians from the obviously hateful **Kronos**. The malevolent being simply stifled the air immediately in his area with so much darkness and corruption that Naruto was somewhat taken aback that all of the people in the enemy camp was not consumed by bloodlust and hatred. It was something that had been puzzling, but a question that would did not really require of an answer. The blond ninja took it as it was without looking a gift horse in the mouth and decided that he would take advantage of that specific relation between the revolting nature of the titan lord and the seeming lack of effectiveness in creating bloodlust. If anything, the most that the titan lord seemed to do was sway the camp of demigods in an almost brainwashing persuasive level. The blond could deal with that.

But there was still the issue of the other side not being particularly simple.

Naruto had a much... _much_ higher level of chakra, and his control was almost out of control. He had sent clones ahead of him to the library so he could take some time to walk over to the library and get some air. Immediately after the demigods from Camp Half Blood were done asking him questions feverishly and praising him with minimal caution, he had been slightly burnt out. He _had_ destroyed **Kronos'** surprise attack that was hardly surreptitious; Naruto was considered a literal godsend in their books.

The energy he possessed had suddenly shot through the roof in content as well as density. The most powerful technique he could recreate at the moment that required control was the **Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)** , which had severely put a downer on the blond's mood and plans. He received such memories from a curious clone that, with an analytical eye, caught a few details that made him mildly attentive, and then fully engrossed in his new chakra. The lethal sphere, once he had created the deadly orbs from his pure energy, was slightly... _golden_. Which made him wonder: what in Kami's name was going on with his chakra. The blue chakra that was in the sphere was his own, but far more turbulent in his body. It rushed and pooled forth at command like a tsunami, difficult to contain and even more difficult to utilize. However, the golden chakra that suddenly came about and was in his command was still, almost like a lake with no disturbance. It was perfectly serene. It interacted with his wild chakra and calmed it, and from his memories, it seemed to be converting his chakra to the more calm, natural energy. Interesting to take note of, as well as something to be wary of.

He would consider the implications later...or maybe he'd let his clones figured it out.

"How irritating," the blond groaned, letting his thoughts become audible. He was starting to sound similar to a certain Nara genius that had given him plenty of headaches as well as many cherished moments. "I wonder what Shikamaru would do...probably stare at the clouds. Or research what had to be done...I should keep working on my English and practice my chakra control so it's as potent as possible for tomorrow." With his actions decided, the blond was soon at the library, continuing his studies from earlier and continuing to utilize nearly five hundred clones to practice and study alongside him. Two were put aside and sent back to the demigod camp to protect the wary children of gods and update the original Naruto if anything happened.

Naruto read until night had fallen. The sky seemed dark with all of the stars snuffed out like a candle in a chamber with no oxygen; so much carbon dioxide that resulted in the sky above practically empty and lifeless. Naruto took his last sip of tea and readjusted his glasses. He had made no headway in his chakra, but made significant improvement in his knowledge of English and the world's history, as well as his chakra control.

Putting the piece of empty china away on a desk, Naruto placed the glasses into a seal and made his way to enemy territory.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Ethan's Tent)**

The young lieutenant was silently at work at his desk. His mind was working at overtime; hundreds of thoughts and possibilities every minute, and these plans coming to life on the pieces of parchment with all the power of bringing these to fruition in his hands and tomorrow with his words and troops. All he had to do was envision it with his mind. It could be creative with something he considered that the enemy side would not expect, or a plan that would be brutally efficient and overwhelm the demigods on the side of the Olympians. Either way, he needed some more time to get the job done; night had come upon the world and he was glad. He preferred the darkness, despite how much people seemed to love the daytime. Balance could be found in even the most minute things, he told to the sun worshipers. All jokes aside, he chose night over day because it gave him an overwhelming sense of peace and quiet, something that was quite high in value when there were only the sounds of battle and the ear scraping echoes of swords scraping in the day time.

Ethan gave his plans another perusal, then closed his lone eye and leaned back in his chair. Taking a deep breath, he felt the fresh night air enter his body and into his lungs, filling them with life sustaining oxygen. It smelled of wood-smoked meat and crisp leaves, the kind of scent a forest would give. It was strange to smell something like this near such a bustling, popular city, but they were camped out at the edge of its forest. It was, in his opinion, the better choice.

He took another breath and stood up and walked around in circles, quickly recapping the day's events, its successes and failures, and recalling the quick but harsh punishment he had received from **Kronos.** He had no idea how the lord of titans had heard his opinion, but if he had to guess, it was probably from the blond enigma that had recklessly knocked down his tent. He had heard of the battle of the broken bridge and found himself surprised at the knowledge that the blond had single-handedly kept the titan at bay, but he didn't let that emotion show. He would not let the titan catch onto any visual cues to upset him further; the titan was furious as it was...and quite spent his human body. The titan had immediately entered his tent and let the body rest.

The curse of Achilles was quite the double-edged sword.

So...Naruto was a wild card, and very much a powerful one at that. It put a large question mark over all of his plans and made the young man second guess himself, reanalyze his methods, and rewrite many a projects that he had written down. All of them were inefficient due to the sudden wrench thrown from left field, and hitting him, the pitcher of ideas. So what was he to _do_.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Ethan paused when he heard the opening to his tent flutter and flap. Looking to the entrance, he spotted a familiar mop of blond and a shit-eating grin on the owner's face.

"Speak of the devil," he muttered in confused amusement. This whole scenario seemed...otherwordly.

Naruto flipped the other teen off. "I'm not the devil. I'm a ninja," he retorted childishly. Ethan chuckled and gave himself a seat and casually pointed at the bed for Naruto to sit. The ninja gave him a thankful nod and made himself comfortable, sitting carefully on the edge of the cotton bed as to not create too many wrinkles. No matter; he would fix it before he slept either way.

"What's up?" Naruto finally let out, looking around casually. There wasn't much to look at, other than the light on the top of the tent that gave off a soft hue, much different that the incandescent lights back at home. Those stuff were harsh and also ate up so much electricity; the first time the blond had received his monthly electricity bill, he nearly freaked out and ran right up to the doors of the electricity company to yell about their fraudulency. Almost.

"I should be asking you that, You speak perfect English now" Ethan noted as he put away his plans into a drawer. Once it was shut, the man turned back on his chair and gave the other person in his tent a look. "I can't really do anything to take you out of my tent by force, and calling for reinforcement at this time of night could work, but we would not have **Lord** **Kronos** at our side."

"You could just ask me to leave."

"Leave," was the immediate response. Naruto gave him a wide grin and replied -

"Nope."

"Worth the shot." Ethan sat up in his seat and Naruto copied the action. "What are you here for? I'm sure you aren't here for some tea and just to chat."

"I wouldn't mind tea, if you had any," Naruto joked. He found himself raising his eyebrows when Ethan suddenly stood up from his chair and went to one of the other drawers on the side of the tent and pulled out a few packets. A minute later, Naruto held a hot cup of tea in his hands, and now a concerned expression was also in his possession.  
Was kind of joking there, but alright. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Ethan took a sip of his own tea, and Naruto soon followed, now believing it was not poisoned. He had watched the demigod the whole time to make sure no fishy business was going on, but he was now sure that there was no lethal risk.

"This is good," said Naruto appreciatively. Good tea was good tea. Thank you, captain obvious. You're welcome.

"Thank you," came the even response.

A pause. "Well, for why I'm here...I am here to chat, actually." Naruto put his cup on the floor delicately and looked up at the expecting teenager. "I want to know what makes you side with **Kronos** , and I'm here for a longer conversation." He grinned. "You know, since we aren't going to battle or anything right now."

Ethan gave the blond an imperceptible frown. "You attacked my fellow soldiers and attacked the leader of this force. Technically, that labels you as an enemy; I should not be having any sort of conversation with you in the first place. So, what do you want?" Ethan asked neutrally.

"Right...alright, I'll get straight to it, then." A nod of approval. "I want your demigods to switch sides."

"Not happening. And that is a terrible way to start and argument," Ethan pointed out. This enigma spoke English, but failed to state things in a way that resulted in understanding. Still, he had given himself a good fifteen minutes for a break from working on strategy, and this is the form it came in. Not ideal, but not the worst.

"Hey, I get it. You spent a lot of time on this whole 'build up the army against the Olympians' and I totally get it. You'll sack the town above and then place a new power as the top dog and then rule with a fairer hand...you think." Naruto pointed at him. "Do you honestly believe that **Kronos** is going to be fair?"

"He's had quite the history of golden years," Ethan said.

"And more years of hell and foolish leadership," Naruto immediately snapped back.

"That's better than experiencing _only_ foolishness and failures under the Olympians," was the counter. The blond crossed his arms and gave the young man in front of him a glare.

"I don't think those are the same levels of foolishness. Under one leadership, you had literal chaos from the hand of the one you trusted in above. On the other, you have a lack of attention and some destruction and causes of concern, but it is nowhere comparable to what your titan lord as done."

"Poseidon flooded cities of many people," Ethan supplied.

"And **Kronos** killed innocents just because he felt like it. Poseidon at least has the excuse that the city were entirely nonbelievers and were talking shit about the gods and him. A bad excuse, but at least the god of the sea has one." Naruto sighed and gave himself a moment to think. "We're not going to get anywhere with this. My point is that right now, the gods have some semblance of balance, and that since all you want is for them to claim the unclaimed and give some form of power to the minor gods, I'm sure that they will supply that to you. It gives the gods far less to worry about if all of the demigods were on one side."

"And what makes you think they would do that?" Ethan crossed his arms and began to drum his fingers against his biceps. He was interested in this conversation; Naruto had gotten the boy into a talking mood. "And even if they did, what makes you think that if they accept this now, that they won't fail on keeping their word in the future? They're quite known for crossing their fingers on promises." There was a slight bit of anger and resentment in the boy's tone.

"Sure, but that's for you to figure out so future generations could have something you didn't. That's the beauty of progression and looking back at history; to prevent ourselves from falling to the same mistakes of our ancestors and succeeding where they could not." Naruto took a breath and - once noting that he had the undivided attention of his audience - continued. "This is where you succeed, Ethan. You can make this whole, needless war into a curbstomp against the lord of the titans and make this far easier for one side, or make both factions struggle and suffer casualties of an unknown magnitude that was hardly necessary."

"They're deaths won't be needless. They served a purpose and will be honored."

"Not if there's no one there to honor them," Naruto muttered darkly. Ethan narrowed his eye. "Let's say you win, Ethan. Just simple assumption, alright? **Kronos** , with his superbly brilliant silver tongue that has all of you demigods under his spell, keeps you all around for a while. He gifts all the demigods and awards you, presents you with medals of honor. You prosper for a few years. You get children, and then grandchildren, and you pass on. But before realizing, once you are too weak to do anything about it, that the camps that held protection for the demigods are destroyed in the guise that if all of the demigods did not know about their origins, that it would be safer. Once you pass, the demigods are weaker since they have less numbers because they have no camp, and those that do realize their heritage are killed because there is no safety or security for them. At the end of the day, there is no demigods, really, and the few that struggle and fight like the weeds in the garden are pulled out from their roots and killed, never to struggle again."

"..." Ethan's lone eye seemed to dilate, his mind whirling as it processed all of the information Naruto just threw at him.

"..."

"I don't know what to say. There's nothing for me to really say to that."

Naruto gave the teen of few words a sad smile. "Good, because I have more. That is, of course, the worst scenario. But you are so insistent that history will not repeat itself and you will change things. You kill off the gods and cage them up somewhere, all opposition disappears. Demigods will hardly be able to do a thing against a fully powered **Kronos** , and with his fellow brothers of evil and peril at his side, there will really by _nothing_ you can do but watch as they take over the world. Have you seen the gods do anything in their unfair rule to edge towards world domination? No? I didn't think so. They are stupid, but they are not greedy when it comes to this world in that matter. Demigods have been in existence for thousands of years, and they're still here. **Kronos'** last years of reign were appalling, and that's putting it lightly. If there is no one to recourse the titan or opposition against him, his new reign will be just as atrocious as his last, just in a new era. Gods cannot fight back, and demigods and gods will be all but a myth, muddled somewhere in the truth of the past.

"...And what makes you think that that is true or correct?" Ethan asked shakily after a minute of silence between the two. Everything about his plans seemed to be crumbling. His alliance, his beliefs, everything about balance was being shaped right now and remolded. It was uncomfortable, being told information that could change the way he thought in just a moment.

"Holding power for forever. There's quite a bit of corruption that can fester into one's mind once that thought fully kicks in."

That was the seal to the deal. It was something that Ethan could understand and an almost truth that Ethan could put himself behind fully. And so he understood what had to be done now. Leaving his cup on his desk, he pulled the plans out from his drawer and stood up. Naruto did the same before taking one last sip from his now finished cup of tea. Staring at the teen resolutely, Ethan took a few determined steps towards the exit and stopped at the folds, his eye holding a certain glint to it.

"There is something I need you to do for me, Naruto," he said. "A favor, if you will."

"What is it?"

"Lead me to Percy." Naruto grinned; he had done it.

 _'Suck on that Percy and Annabeth. Told you **Talk no Jutsu** was overpowered!' _the blond yelled to himself triumphantly in his own mental world.

"You got it!"

The two left the tent with the lights still on, and the bed's wrinkles never to be fixed by its owner again.

 **Chapter 4 End**

 **A/N: I'm just going to end it here. Short is better than nothing, and I didn't have much firepower to keep going today, but I didn't want to leave you guys with nothing. So here y'all go. I got hecka busy in the last week, so I wrote this all today, and I'm hella tired.**

 **I'm going to be honest: I'm not appreciating the flames. I don't see why flaming is necessary, to be honest. If you want to leave a review, go for it. But I asked for critiques, not shit talk and bullshit. I'm doing what I can to improve myself and write again, but detriments from unwelcome guests is not exactly helping me grow, and neither is it helping you either.**

 **So stop.**

 **Either way, hope y'all enjoyed the story and leave a review if y'all want. There's still a lot I have to do to grow, and even catch up to my former self.**

 **KenzoXShuyita peacing out!**


	5. Meeting Again, Not Really Friends

**Meeting Again, Not Really Friends**

 **A/N: And another chapter because I thought, welp...why not? So here goes!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **TBM10: I'll keep updating as often as possible! I'm honestly surprised I'm writing so much, but it's probably because it's summer. :D**

 **Max Moreno: He could have won a lot, haha. But lemons are just a concept.**

 **Rio Skyron: Lol the Talk no Jutsu is such a weird plot device. And yea...I found that a weird as well. Same page, man. Same page...**

 **Im-Bored-and-Gay: No slash! I don't know how to write smut, and slash even less, haha**

 **The Sorrowful Deity: It made Naruto's world a better place. Unless you mean our world. Then...uh...yea! Just positivity and a silver tongue.**

 **Desdelor97: Woah, astounding. I like that compliment! I appreciate it man, and I do hope you find this chapter an improvement from the last!**

 **X-ownz: It is the most overpowered technique in the whole manga.**

 **Guardian of the Inheritance: Thanks, my dude. Good to see you!**

 **helrio uzugaku: Yea flames are honestly...weird? Unproductive and just a detriment in almost all scenarios. But it's fine. As for the chakra and it's implications...you'll see!**

 **ultima-owner: Perhaps, perhaps not. I dunno!**

 **MohammedOssama999: Kronos may have, but he had to rest his body physically regardless. The curse of Achilles is a double-edged sword that heavily impacts the body and pretty much forces the user to rest except when they are fighting.**

 **freshprince1: I always give hints.**

 **Rianeal: Eek, plot holes. Hmmm...I think my idea would clear out a few of those**

 **bladetri: xD**

 **ellainaparker: Thank you! Attempting to make it great.**

 **Blindguy95: Yea, flames are unnecessary. I try to shut them out. Hmm...Naruto was not a fan of killing. He would do his best to incapacitate, and only ever killed if completely necessary. Therefore, having him _want_ to kill would be OC. Having him kill for the necessity would make him still Naruto. At least, that's my opinion for that matter. **

**nitewolf423: Yeet! Talk no Jutsu OP OP**

 **Tal House: Thank you! I'm working on improving but it's hard :/ I got to read more**

 **Guest: Er...that's probably not going to happen. Sorry!**

 **Shadow: Arigatou!**

 **Guest: I shall continue this as long as my motivation remains for this story or for writing in general.**

 **Chaos: Right! The goal is the long con. I'm just trying to enjoy myself and write, improving all the while. Thanks for understanding. You're a real one.**

 **GrandLuminesence: Thanks! And uh...find out!**

 **Aqua-sensei: Woah...dude that's so awesome to hear. That made me really glad to read someone enjoys keeping up with my story. And haha, that's totally cool! Power scaling is such a heavily debatable topic/issue.**

 **AnimeIsLife407: Flamers may go away, but I want my mistakes to be minimal. I will reach for growth as long as I can. Thank you!**

 **UchihaNaruto247: Awesome, man! Always happy to read that someone likes the story. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out, but dunno at the moment. Only time will tell!**

 **Well, that's all of them! Let's get it!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

 **Chapter 5 START**

"And you want me to believe that?" Percy incredulously asked the eccentric ninja. Naruto, to his credit, gave a somber nod before giving Ethan a thumbs up with gleeful energy. "You're not helping your case!"

Naruto had managed to get Ethan inside the base of the Olympus side with hardly any problems; his camouflage technique taught by Ero-Sennin had made this whole infiltration much easier than he would have expected. Plus, with his skills with stealth and observation, the whole mission to cakewalk! He could do this in his sleep, and some!

The pressing issue that was not so simple was convincing Percy and Annabeth that Ethan was here in good earnest. The traitor, as the two dubbed him the moment they set their eyes on the Asian teen, had backstabbed them more than enough times for anyone at Camp Half-Blood with any kind of wits about them or a triple digit IQ to make him on their permanent shit-list. Currently, the only members to possibly agree with him without any convincing would be the Ares cabin, of which neither Percy or Annabeth were.

"I'm asking you to listen." Naruto took a seat across the two risen - and very exasperated, heated - demigods. The three demigods in the tent spent the next twenty or so seconds having a stare down that Naruto swore could cause electrical currents due to the friction between the two parties. Finally, Percy sighed, and relenting, sunk into his chair. Annabeth soon followed. Naruto pulled the chair next to him out for Ethan, but the boy chose to remain standing.

 _'Suit yourself.'_ The chair went back towards the table.

"As I was saying," Naruto continued, garnering the attention of the two on-edge leaders of their camp, "I want you to listen first. Believing can come later."

Ethan took this as his cue to step forward and present his case. First, he explained what had transpired only an hour before, with Naruto convincing him to listen and then try to talk to the two demigods. He told them everything and his stipulations. When he had finished talking, Annabeth and Percy found themselves in two different positions in the spectrum of understandable human emotion.

"That's not hard to...that's it? That's all you wanted?" Annabeth asked quietly, mentally chewing herself out. Percy was not so far off, although far more frustrated with himself, and the irritation was clear as day...or night.

"So all I had to say was 'hey Ethan, let's go talk to the gods and we'll fix this' and you would've listened?!" the other shouted indignantly, gripping a few locks of hair. " _Really?_ " he seethed. This was so stupid...no this was something beyond. Far _beyond_. This was _extra_ stupid. This whole war could have been prevented if - no...maybe not prevented. Percy paused in thought, reeling in his anger, albeit barely, and looked out to the river outside. It gave him a sense of power and serenity that gave him a certain clarity of thought that was very much required right now in his turmoil and cloudiness of mind. He could _still_ not believe that all he had to do was tell him he'd talk to the gods; sometimes, people...they just got on his nerves. Closing his eyes in disbelief, Percy chose to rub his eyes tiredly and pray that Ethan could prove to him that he was able to be trusted.

Naruto watched the emotions flash across Percy's and Annabeth's features for a few moments before sighing, catching all three demigods attentions. Once he noticed all three pairs of eyes on him, he blinked owlishly. "What?" He blinked again, and the three other pairs followed suite. "I didn't have anything to say; I was waiting for you three to reach a decision."

Percy groaned. So much for leader material from the ninja. He grumbled to himself as he pulled out a golden nugget and expertly played with it in his fingers, his ADHD kicking in. "How do we know we can trust you?" he asked, refusing to look away from the coin. The sight of the traitor stills gave him moments of hatred and flashing bouts of intense, bubbling fury. Ethan was lucky he didn't pull upon his powers as the son of Poseidon and end the boy the moment he caught sight of him. "You only brought back the lord of the titans, our greatest enemy in all of this, and are one of his highest ranking officials in his camp."

Ethan placed the plans he had written down for the past four hours on the table in clear vision of all four and unfurled the rolls of parchment, revealing all to the inhabitants of the tent.

"If me walking here on my own by Naruto's side was not enough for you to trust, since you could take me as a POW immediately or torture me for information, I brought these strategies that were to be employed tomorrow as more reason to have confidence." Percy and Annabeth glimpsed at the pieces of paper freshly laid out on the table quickly but accurately, memorizing all they could before returning their glare to Ethan. Annabeth gave the boy next to her a sign that the plans that were written were very plausibly the real deal by giving him a nudge on his leg and an almost imperceptible nod. Percy caught this from the corner of his eye. "I have given you all a huge advantage in this war now, and if **Kronos** catches on to what I have done, then I am a dead man." A measured smile reached Ethan's lips. "Which is a win-win situation for you, regardless of what happens from this point on."

The action and reasoning from Ethan had done good for himself; it had quelled suspicion on his actions coming over. However, it did, by no means, not make him an ally to their camp. In a sense, this put Naruto in a precarious light as well; the ninja was the one to bring Ethan over and had connections with said teen prior to the demigods of Olympus. He was also strong enough to wipe out the majority of the camp of demigods and satyrs on his own given his previous demonstration of power. Regardless, Naruto was a prospect that was weighed positively, whereas Ethan was far in the negatives.

Percy looked over to the only girl in their vicinity, who seemed to be driving through a whole roadway of thoughts and repercussions to said thoughts and plans. Naruto leaned back in his chair and focused on the outside, making sure that no demigod was near the tent or eavesdropping. Content for the time being, the blond eased up slightly and waited. His clones were still practicing on their chakra control and knowledge. He had put a stoppage on their studying the golden chakra that had strangely made itself present in his system by using **Sage Mode**. The more he was in the empowered state, the greater in concentration the invasive chakra came to be, and the less it seemed to be only calm. In fact, the blond sensed a kind of dormancy about the energy, as if it were tranquil and deeper, _far_ _deeper_ , he felt _wrath_.

It was a strange theory, but he assumed that it may have something to do with the mother of all titans, but that was just guesswork. The other probability was that he somewhere down in his cage, the chakra from the beast inside was pooling in, but the seal was acting differently...well, something was working off kilter. Both of the possibilities included wrath, so Naruto left both doors open and would deal with either if push came to shove, but that would be later.

Thank god for clones, bygones be bygones. They had enabled him to learn English by means of translation from Japanese - lucky he was to have some kind of relation to the language...for some reason...weird world - through practice, repetition, and awful, Kami forsaken migraines that would make most men run to the hospital for fear of death. In addition to all this, the clones had managed to get his chakra control down to a commendable low Chunnin level. It was far better than the Genin level control he had in the morning, but it was oceans away in the stillness and mastery he had over his own pool of life energy; he may not have had perfect control over his chakra, but he was damn near close. It made him wonder how he hadn't turned to stone yet, although he had gotten a few drawbacks from performing the transformation imperfectly. Even during the fight against **Kronos** on the bridge, Naruto felt a few warts pop up on his stomach and hand, although he ignored them for later.

All in all, Naruto assessed that **Sage Mode** was dangerous until he had at _least_ Jonin level control over his chakra.

But that was all theory.

Naruto was broken out of his complacent reverie when -

"I could use my drachma to call my father," Percy sighed out. Maybe this whole 'double cross' was actually for real and he was overthinking it. He certainly hoped it was true. "If I could get my father to understand Ethan's perspective and agree to his proposal, and he got the major gods on Olympus to agree, it _would_ make this whole fight easier," he analyzed critically.

"If that doesn't work, I could always try and give a call to my mother," Annabeth drew up the fail-safe. She gave him a pat for good luck on the shoulder as Percy whispered something and summoned water before a...

 _'Is that a screen? What the hell?'_ Naruto squinted his eyes in concentration, attempting to understand what was happening. However, when the image cleared up, his eyes were now narrowed in clear recognition. _'There's a war underwater.'_ To prove his point, a bright light shot off in the visible range, and then an explosion very near to wherever the image was being shot from shook the ocean floor, shaking the grainy shot the four had of wherever or whatever they were being shown.

"Dad?" Percy called out anxiously. Static quietly hummed until another explosion rocked the image, sifting sand and rubble over the video call. "Dad, are you there?" Panic seemed to be kicking in as Percy's eyes darted erratically.

" _...-rcy_?" a muffled voice broken by the poor connection cut the silence. " _Percy, is that you_?" The voice seemed to be getting stronger. Percy's shoulder unconsciously relaxed and his eyes brightened in relief. He hadn't even realized how stiff he had become. However, the worry kicked right back like a boomerang when the god of the sea was finally visible. The man was noticeably older than in the demigod's memory, and Percy caught himself creasing his forehead.

"Dad! I need your help!" Another explosion. "I need you to talk to the other Olympians and tell them they have to claim all of the children of the minor gods."

 _"I'm a bit busy here, Percy. I can't just leave my home and - "_ another bright light came into view and erupted _very_ near the god of the seas. The god instinctively raised in trident and collected intense energy concentrated at the tip of the middle point and fired off an energy blast that connected with the incoming light. A rumble that the four in the tent swore they all felt - it was hardly considered an earthquake but _still_ \- hardly disturbed the papers on the large table. Annabeth placed a comforting hand on Percy's shoulder, but the boy hardly relaxed this time. _"I need to protect my game room! That took nearly six hundred years to build and perfect!"_ Poseidon roared, his voice suddenly clear in the call.

This seemed to light a fire in Percy's eyes as he yelled at his father, practically ordering his father, a _god_ , to get his ass out from under the water and to Olympus and above the seas; there was no reason to worry about a game room if the possibly of never having a game room again was the more pressing issue! Poseidon gave the boy - no, the young man his son had grown to be - a good, hard look before giving his son a warm smile that could have softened the hardest of souls. Naruto thought the god seemed to regain a few years of life as the god's eyes shined with a kind of vibrancy and mirth, and no small amount of pride. Before the call shut down, the god swore on the Styx (cue lightning) to give the other Olympians a heads up on the plan, but first he would fight against Oceanus.

 _"I love you, Percy. You have become a wonderful, trustworthy young demigod."_ The god then disappeared as the vision faded away, and the image evaporated.

A few moments after, Percy softly muttered, weakly quaking, "Thanks, dad."

A minute passed in silence, and only the roaring silence pervaded everyone's ears. The lull of the never stopping river was calming, as much as the occasional zephyr that passed through and fluttered the tents flaps. Naruto closed his eyes and took a moment to take in the moment of peace. Any moment of rest and momentary respite was welcome. Those moments were hard to come by, whether they be a minute, or an hour, or even a few days. But no matter; seconds of peace were ephemeral and just as c as constant as the waters. Never stopping, always continuously replaced by another substance.

Annabeth coughed into her closed fist. "Can we get a moment?" she requested, before staring directly at Ethan. The one-eyed demigod nodded surely and deftly stood and left the tent and was now in Michael Yew's custody. She shifted her attention to the ninja and asked, "What are you, Naruto?"

The blond raised an eyebrow. He wasn't surprised by the question, not at all. It was more the phrasing that threw him for a loop. "I'm a human, just like you. Just a bit...special."

"And what parts are special?" She _knew_ he was not a regular human, not after the feats he pulled out just a few hours prior. But what he was, she was not sure to say. Demigod? Possible, but unlikely. Perhaps he was a different being that has been in existence in this world all this time, and only now revealed himself. Although that also seemed...low in probability as there were many other times in history where a person of his caliber would have been greatly appreciated and would have literally, single-handedly changed the tides in battle. It was a puzzle that left her very...puzzled, to say the least.

Naruto raised his right hand flat up. "So, you guys are half god and half human, and thus demigods, correct?" A pair of nods in response. "Right. How do you say this?"

Percy lifted a hand, stopping Naruto. "The simplest way you can, please. I'm not the most intellectual audience you'll ever get." The blond granted the other boy a grin that reached his eyes. They crinkled with mirth and understanding.

"Alright, the simplest way possible. I'm a ninja and can use my life energy to do inhuman feats!" he exclaimed honestly. It was the _Too long; didn't read_ version of what he was, but it was factually simple and to the point. If anything, the lift in Percy's shoulders and surprise on his face indicated that he comprehended the sentence.

"You're a _what_?!" he whispered excitedly, his childishness impacting his reaction heavily. "No way!"

"Yes way. I am indeed, a unit of energy," Naruto drawled. Annabeth palmed her forehead.

 _'I have two idiots to deal with. Wonderful.'_ She could hardly handle Percy's idiocy at times, but another idiot with his completely unique humor. No thank you. What was it with the infectious, stupid grin the blond was giving her way, almost knowing exactly what she was thinking. She felt her lips slightly curl up and lift as her mood rose.

"A ninja is not what I was anticipating after my research on the powers of this world. In fact, the way you fought earlier contradicts everything about the history of ninja, as they tend to fight in the shadows." Naruto nodded, realizing that what she said was truth. He had made sure his clones had read up on anything for ninja and learned that his breed of ninja simply did not exist, neither in the present day nor in any moment of history. He was a special being that was not categorized in this world; ironic, he thought. If any of these demigods were in his world, they'd be considered incredible and exotic...and probably placed behinds bars of whichever of the Big Five had the lucky catch. Either way, that was there and this was here. He was the exotic one in this case. "I figured that...you'd be some kind of deity, despite what you said earlier."

Naruto felt his grin fade away. "I'm not a god, and I don't think I ever will be."

"When did you realize you were clear sighted?" Annabeth asked, her eyes narrowing slightly in curiosity. This whole interrogation seemed to become far more interesting to her. "And where did you learn to fight like that?"

The blond saw this as question as decisive. Truly, a daughter of Athena, and a leader. Confident, strong, and clearly able to keep her own, the girl was now grasping as the inkling of hints that Naruto had unknowingly left behind in the single day he had existed in Earth. It didn't bother him at all that was attractive as well.

"I'm...well - how do I put this - " he saw Percy give him a plead with both hands clasped together. " - I'm not from here. Like, from Earth."

"Oh my gods...he's an alien," Percy mouthed. Then, he gasped and pointed his finger strongly, said finger bristling with all of the power its user held. "A Japanese alien!"

Annabeth quickly struck the boy in the back of the head for the exclamation. It could have been subjectively taken as racist. Looking over to Naruto, he didn't seem to mind much, if his easygoing expression was anything to go by.

"Where are you from?" At this, the blond grinned. Finally, the million dollar question.

"From my mother's womb."

At the end of the night, Naruto had learned a great deal. One, he was clear sighted in the terms of the Greek. He was unsure whether he was innately able to see through the mist or because he had used **Sage Mode** in the first few minutes of his unexpected entry into this planet, but he was now able to see everything. He had no issue with that; he would see the monsters for what they were, rather than gigantic ducks or whatever the human mind imagined them as. He'd rather not know. Secondly, Annabeth reminded him of Shikamaru due to her intelligence and quick planning with very effective ideas that he knew the Nara genius would agree with. It irked him somewhat to be in the midst of another genius, but he shrugged it off; it would do him no good in the long and he had the genius of **Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones)** to study whatever he wanted. Thirdly, he was far, _far_ stronger than he expected.

Naruto had taken his leave for the night and decided to sleep on a street corner not too far off from the tent. He had immediately entered a meditative pose and cleansed his mind as to enter himself...and was immediately shocked by what he felt. His chakra pool was consistently increasing at an alarming rate. His clones were barely keeping up with improving his control at the same rate that the quantity was vastly growing. He would have to up the clones training in control, and he would join in. A blunt weapon could be just as danger as a weapon sharp enough to slice through the mountains, but he'd prefer to have both. A master of variety was far more dangerous than a master of one. Currently, his chakra pool forced him to overpower all of his basic techniques, thus the bluntness.

He had also discovered that once he entered his mindscape where the gigantic, vile **Nine-Tailed Fox** was supposed to be, a far more enforced cage was in its place. No longer was the cage with the simple vertical bars with an expertly designed seal to hold the chakra being inside. Instead, it was boxed in completely with metal, unable to be seen from the outside nor inside. That was, until Naruto imagined what if the box was see-through, and then he saw...well, nothing. The box was full of chakra, which was slowly seeping out of the one opening and dispersing into the mindscape. Naruto raised his arm and felt the chakra; he didn't feel any vileness or darkness, meaning the soul of the **Kyuubi** was not immersed. It was pure, potent chakra. The blond let his mouth drop slowly in awe as he basked in the spectacle of this revelation; he was actually free...and with all of the damn fox's chakra with none of the drawbacks. It wondered how much it would empower him in the long run...

"It doesn't answer what the golden chakra was either." Naruto gave an almost longing look at the cage before turning away. "Something I got to test first, though."

Thus, Naruto escaped the mindscape and eagerly created a thousand clones. Feeling almost no draw on his reserves, he summoned five thousand. That felt like a punch in the chest from the chakra loss, but he still had some in the tank. A moment later, they were all at work, practicing chakra control.

Oh, he was excited to fight against the titan once more in a rematch.

"Oh, I'm coming -"

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Time Skip: Next Day Noon)**

" - For you, **Kronos**!" Naruto roared, blitzing straight at the titan. The titan's eyes widened at the speed; he could hardly keep up with the blond, who had accelerated tremendously since the last skirmish they had. Raising his scythe and blocking the kick that struck right between the deity's hands on the handle, **Kronos** grunted but thought he had Naruto beat at this moment. He would absorb the impact from the charge and jerk his handle away, twist his body unnaturally to prepare for a rapid, abrupt swing that would call the curtains to this fight before it ever began. However, all that was not to be. **Kronos** had not braced properly for the impact, and the result was that he was pressed, then demanded by the laws of physics to lose purchase with the ground. Soon after, the charge inflicted an order that imposed a 'sent flying by means of hurtling through trees.' **Kronos** was sent from his original position next to his soldiers, tall and proud and prepared to fight, to the forest nearly three hundred yards away and creating devastation in his wake.

Naruto _felt_ that kick. It had literally sent tingles up his whole body from the bottom up straight from the jerk. It was incredibly satisfying to get a solid hit in as well as send the titan flying. "Oh, this seems similar," Naruto gloated.

 **"Naruto!** " the voice from the forest rumbled in fury, echoing darkly, rippling the waters underneath the bridge from the bellow.

Said teen felt the smile on his face crinkle his eyes and yelled back in his specially irritating, cheerful style, "That's me!" He gave a hard stare at the soldiers behind him; all of the demigods of **Kronos'** seemed hesitant to attack. Ethan had hopefully made good on his promise. Last night, they agreed on a plan that was risky, but it was the most plausible. The demigods of **Kronos** would charge, but they would not fight the demigods to incapacitate. It would just be deadly sparring with lethal weapons, that's all. The easiest way to get this done would be to send the titan away; the biggest threat would be off the field and the betrayal from the traitor's side would commence.

That is, unless they were traitors. Despite Naruto's best wishes, he knew that were at least a few demigods on the enemy camp that would not change sides despite what their lieutenant ordered them; there were some too deep in vengeance. It reminded him eerily of Sasuke, and it almost forced the blond to sulk in memory of the traitor.

But he digressed. A man could hope, yes. Naruto was certainly hoping the demigods were all on one side now.

 **"Attack them!"** **Kronos** roared once he was visible past the treelines, empowering his troops with his order. His whole force marched forward slowly. Then, they picked up speed into a slight jog. A run. Then a sprint.

"Let's go! Engage!" Percy screamed above the noise, rallying the camp to life as every demigod on the other side of the bridge prepared for battle. "Naruto, you called dibs, right?"

The blond turned around and gave the two leaders of the camp a beaming grin that was halfway to a smirk. He eye-smiled and popped a thumbs up. "Yup! That baddie titan is all mine! You can get the others if they show up!"

"Go get him!" Annabeth encouraged, a miniature, shy smile sprouting. Naruto nodded at the two of them and blurred out of vision, traveling at an inhuman speed. He sped past all of the enemy troops prodigiously faster, as if he were wind itself, and ran straight for the big boss, creating a sonic boom a moment after that blew wind into both sides.

"That's stupid," Michael snorted out, saying what was on every other spectators mind.

Naruto was having a blast, fighting hand to hand with the human form of the titan lord. He had raised his chakra control to low Jonin control over the night, but it was far better than the day prior. He could feel his chakra far more intimately and accurately attuned the energy to each of his muscles. It was like muscle memory, except with more muscle! And it was working; Naruto was deliberately, consistently pushing **Kronos** further into the dense foliage and away from the battle between two camps. If he could get far enough away, it would create the ideal solution for Naruto. His techniques weren't exactly meant to be used in closed spaces or with a large number that could be considered collateral damage.

The blond felt a feral grin threatening to expose itself as he gripped the scythe by the handle and brushed it aside with his left hand casually. Cocking back his right arm, he twisted his body back in a flexible arc. Closing his fist and applying chakra to his right arm, he shot his arm forward like a cannon. **Kronos** , feeling the intensity of the blow as it, quite literally, screamed at him with a high pitched whine towards his face, brought up his left arm with the intent to block the blow.

"Feeble attempt, titan."

The fist met the defending hand one moment. The next second, a whole line of trees the distance of fifty feet had been topped over destructively. A broken line of dirt, rocks, soot, and a deep trench line lead to the rage-filled titan, who was slowly rising.

"Come on, is that all you got?" Naruto taunted, knowing that the titan would easily get riled by a mere 'mortal' like himself. It was in the blood of those that were born _higher-than-thou_. Naruto practically lived with those assholes and knew _exactly_ how to push their buttons.

And how to defeat them.

As expected, the air seemed to become saturated with darkness as the titan's power rose as quickly as temperature of his blood. The blond had been waiting for this; the two were comfortably distant from the other battle. This would be a splendid test with the purpose of examining exactly how much more powerful he had become. He could feel pure, untapped potential and _power_ coursing through his body like a violent ocean, it source: turbulent and deep. Naruto's excitement grew as quickly as his energy; a chakra shroud emerged, encapsulating the blond and steaming off, little wisps escaping. "I've been waiting all night to do this!"

" **There is...a special place in Hell for you, Naruto Uzumaki!** "

"I heard - "

Kronos was suddenly made aware of a blond behind him as Naruto's foot made contact with the titan's side of the head via a whip-like roundhouse kick in midair. The titan flew off once more, crashing through and uprooting trees and shrubberies all the same. When the titan had finally dropped to the ground and rolled for nearly thirty feet, the blond was already on the move.

The titan looked up and immediately shoved his body to the left, hardly dodging Naruto's stomp as the blond axe kicked the ground, shaking the earth and creating and fissure that extended nearly forty feet in diameter. **Kronos** shakily remained standing and jumped back three times in quick succession to create some ground before dilating time. Naruto, as if unaffected by time, peered over his shoulders and had one cold, blue orb locked on the deity.

" - there's a special place for you as well. It's called Tartarus." He turned around and faced his prey. The blood was getting to his head and it was making him restless. A twitch here. A tap of the foot here. A blur here and a reappearing Naruto right in front of **Kronos** there.

 _'Wait what!'_

A significantly slowed down Naruto threw a punch skyward, barely missing the titan's jaw as he tilted his head to the side skillfully. Ducking and then immediately jumping to dodge the two quick slices that would have beheaded and sliced his body in half horizontally respectively, Naruto executed a flip once in the air efficiently and gracefully before twisting and turning his body so he was upright. He landed on the flat end of the scythe and attempted to force it down, but it held true. Switching to plan B on the fly, Naruto took a step on the scythe's handle towards the titan and launched a chakra empowered kick at the neck, as if the head was a soccer ball. Or at least he'd make the titan empowered by the curse into a bobble head for a few memorable seconds.

Right before it landed, the blond narrowed his eyes. **Kronos** had blurred and the blond was back on the ground. He frowned; everything seemed to be moving faster. However...

 _'Why does it feel like I'm moving slower.'_

" **I'm not quite used to this, as I've never had to use this before in my entire existence. But, I feel that you are worthy enough in this body to deal with my time dilation in both aspects at the same time!** " **Kronos** voiced from above the blond, standing atop a thick branch. Naruto casually looked up and threw three shuriken suddenly, watching the spinning projectiles suddenly slow down once they were approximately ten meters from the titan. The deadly weapons were hardly moving at a snail's pace now. **"I'll enjoy seeing what you can accomplish this time, mortal.** "

"As am I," Naruto whispered menacingly into **Kronos** ' ear, catching the titan very much off guard. The titan spun around in the blink of an eye, speeding up his actions and decelerating the nimble blond as much as possible, but the mental strain at controlling both directions of time flow was incredible and unexpected. However, it seemed to have the impact he wanted. Naruto was blitzing about the battle area at rate that he was able to track. Naruto was still moving very, _very_ fast, but it was no longer an unreadable blur that he could only see and not react to due to this body's physical attributes.

The titan swung once with his scythe diagonally, which the blond tried deflecting with a kunai. The scythe dented the short blade and pushed the ninja back and down, nearly bringing the teen to his knees. He hadn't expected the swing to be so heavy, nor the scythe to be so _dense_. Naruto flipped backwards and quickly ran through a set of handseals.

" **Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!** " Naruto shoved his hands forward, directing the torrent of wind that madly whistled and crackled. **Kronos** rushed out of the way and rolled out of the edge of the technique, sparing his body the damage. Although getting hit by abilities and blades did not damage him physically, it did cause the body to tire far more quickly due to the drawbacks of the _Curse_ _of Achilles._ He would not be push out of commission today, however. This was possibly the last day the titan could fight without all of the Olympians united, which would set him at a serious disadvantage. No, he wouldn't let that happen.

He'd kill this boy and the young, yet talented Percy Jackson and rise to Olympus. Then he'd set the whole god damned place ablaze.

"Let's get this party started! **Sage Mode**!" The blond opened his yellow pupils to the world, the transformation once again complete and perfected. One of the three clones he left behind were used for the power up. Naruto left an afterimage and accelerated, creating doubles and triples of himself as he circled the titan. "Come on, old man, let's go, let's go!" he echoed in the forest when the titan swung and missed the fluid, agile ninja. "Are you even trying to slow me down?"

Suddenly, Naruto lost his afterimages and was practically stuck in place, his leg slowly moving in a running stance. His eyes darted over to the titan, who was sweating profusely, putting his all into slowing the blond down as much as he could.

 _' **If only I were in my true form, then this maddening child would have been dead long ago**!' _Kronos seethed internally, walking forward with concentration heavily set on keeping the hyperactive child still. When he was only a few feet away, the titan raised his scythe and let it stop at its apex, letting the deadly blade flourish and glisten in the light, before dropping it down in an a vertical line with the intent to cleave.

Naruto's eyes widened as he found his body unable to do anything. Raising his arms as quickly as he could, Naruto found his body moving far faster than he had expected, his fist crossing the distance from his side to the titan's chin almost colliding titan after half a second.

 **"Too slow! Tak-" Kronos'** triumphant moment was cut short as he was struck by an unexpected, invisible force struck him harshly. If it were any ordinary demigod, the being would have found - the nearest bystander would have found the body of the demigod and their head cleanly separated. However, it was **Kronos** in the body of Luke Castellan with the effects of the _Curse of Achilles_ at his side. Therefore, it was sad to say, but Naruto's punch that had cracked into the skull of the teen and had clapped thunderously, merely sent the boy careening into the air, practically floating for a few moments. For a moment, it have seemed as if the boy could fly...until he began falling...and rolling...and rolling...aaaand rolling painfully through rocks and tumbling into a thick tree trunk.

Naruto cackled as the titan got back up. "Oh, by Kami!" he wheezed with his mouth gasping for air, slapping his leg and bending over with a hand on his knee for support. But it would not do. Crumpling even further, the blond stomped his foot, then went on his knees and beat the ground, rumbling the ground in his amusement of the hilarious situation. Cracking one eye open, Naruto saw the titan painfully and _oh so slowly_ planting his feet on the ground to rise. "You thought - hahahaha - you thought you had me! That's so _embarassing_ Mr. Titan-chan!"

 _'Thank Kami for **Sage Mode's** extra range, though. I could have used a substitution, but that was way more gratifying, punching him myself! Ah, the rewards of risk.'_

The titan's pace of standing tall and proud with a shattered pride was enormously quickened when the wild laughter of the blond rose to thunderous guffaws. In the blink of an eye, the titan was on top the laughing blond who hadn't expected the rapid speed change. As a result, Naruto was in for a unwelcome jolt back to reality when **Kronos** kicked him in the stomach with as much power as he could muster at the moment. Naruto spit out some blood but made no sound or change in facial expression to outwardly give a cue to taking damage when he barreled through a few trees of his own. After crashing through seven trees, Naruto gathered his bearings and planted his feet on the next incoming tree and stood vertically. Bending his legs, Naruto applied chakra to his feet and pushed. The force of the jump toppled the tree and sent bark flying everywhere. He boosted off faster than a rocket at max velocity, creating flames in his wake, lighting up a small portion of the forest and trees aflame.

The two powerful beings fought in close combat for a good thirty seconds, nearly in stalemate, but it was clear that **Kronos** was slowly gaining the edge the more the titan became familiar with the blond's strength and fighting style. That is, until he realized the blond didn't really have a fighting style that he could expect; every attack seemed random, but was highly methodical and calculated in Naruto's perspective. He had used this style for years, training it and honing it until it was efficiently damaging and unpredictable. It forced **Kronos** to stay on his toes...literally.

Naruto, using all of his strength in **Sage Mode** , bent low to the ground to duck under a swipe, but he didn't expect kick to the face that nearly broke his nose. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Naruto applied chakra to his feet to remain glued to the ground right next to **Kronos** and gave him no time to respond to the quick handstand bicycle kicks to the shoulders. Rotating on his upper body, Naruto flared his legs out and spun in a circle, kicking Kronos in the head and then swept low and removed the titan from the ground. The titan, expecting ground, sped up the fall and planned to roll immediately afterward. However, Naruto had expected this and yelled -

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto had already substituted himself with a branch directly underneath **Kronos** and donkey-kicked the unsuspecting opponent straight upward. The titan dilated time, hoping to get another swipe, but Naruto had already substituted himself again out of harm's way.

 _' **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!'**_

Five clones exploded into life, walloping recklessly immediately in the titan's direction.

"U-!" One clone punched the titan right in the jaw, rocketing him even higher.

"-Zu-!" The next clone pushed off the first clone and aerial flipped in the air to evade a retaliating swing of a scythe. Dodging a hastily thrown out kick with nimble ease, the Naruto clone gracefully kicked Luke Castellan's body in the stomach, sending the body another fifty feet higher. For some reason, **Kronos'** body was extremely dense.

"-Ma-!" The third clone was immediately in the titan's personal space, kicking twice and punching once with grand force.

"-Ki!" the first clone shouted, already back in the air. Once **Kronos** was at the apex of his flight, Naruto reminded the titan he was not lord of the skies or of flight, axe kicking the titan true in the crown, sending **Kronos** violently rocketing down in a split second, flipping all the way down.

"Surprise! **Bijuudama Rasengan**!"

 **Kronos** widened his eyes as he felt the extreme concentration of power in the technique that lay before him. That small orb...could lay waste and devastation to thousands of ordinary souls. If he got hit by that, it was over for him; it would only be a matter of time until one found his _Achilles Heel_ while his body shut down. Slowing down time as much as possible for the blond, **Kronos** continued to fall to the surface, recognizing that the technique was not complete in Naruto's hands; it was still growing and absorbing energy. Naruto mentally frowned, realizing that **Kronos** could also bring down the speed of creating techniques.

 _'That's some bullshit. I should've just shoved it in his face...welp, now I know! **Kawarimi no Jutsu**!' _

Naruto disappeared, leaving a log in his place. Said log was immediately sliced through cleanly. Many would worship that log in the future.

The ninja was directly below the titan, but he somehow expected this, jumping instinctively backwards at incredible speed. Naruto's technique burst out of the surface and exploded into life. The second it cracked through the earth, it seemed to suck away the color of the world with its black and white hue. The scenery turned bleak and desolate for just a split second before all returned to normal. **Kronos** slowed down time to almost a complete standstill; there was no way in the name of Tartarus was he getting hit by that!

But to **Kronos'** ever increasing horror, Naruto was still moving! The spiraling ball filled with negative and positive energy grazed **K** **ronos'** shoes and pants, vaporizing whatever cloth it touched, only reaffirming the titan's new rule number one: do not let the ball touch you.

 _'Damn it. Glancing blow.'_ Naruto furrowed his brows in concentration.

Without thinking through his next actions, Naruto _threw_ the deadly spiraling sphere at the fleeing target who was attempting to scramble away.

A wonderful use of creativity and imagination...except it was done with terrible execution.

It exploded in both of their faces.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Bridge with Percy and Annabeth)**

Annabeth weaved in with her invisible cap on, slicing a cyclop's legs behind the knee and darted out, leaving the monster of myth howling on the ground. Giving the battle a quick one-eighty, she captured the whole situation in a mere second and ran forwards, weighing it as the most profitable action.

Everything was going well. In fact, she risked to say the word 'perfectly.' Her perception of the war currently at this stage was...their side was winning. No contest. The demigods were all working in collaboration against the monsters on the titan's side, and there appeared to be only a few demigods that did not want to switch over. That petty minority had been wiped out instantly, and the rest were able to solely focus on clearing out the bridge, which they had done almost easily with a united force.

That was until Hyperion grandly introduced himself by means of crashing into the middle of the forces, killing a few enemies and allies with no regard for either side. However, she saw the elder titan's eyes glance at Percy for a fleeting moment before its eyes clearly became a hard glare. Percy was the one he had wanted. It was going to take everything to keep the titan down, even with an empowered Percy.

The immediate response from Annabeth was to chuck a water bottle she had attached to her hip and throw it Percy. Said teen doused himself under the fluid an felt the ocean and all bodies of water nearby at the tip of his fingers. It was overwhelming...and that was exactly what he had needed.

The satyrs and demigods ran at the titan, the creatures of the wild singing a tune on their reed pipes to summon vines and branches to trap the titan and hold him down. The titan amused them for only a few moments, pretending the vines were a valid threat to assess, but it was soon all too clear that it was hardly a nuisance. The tune of the battle changed, as did the song the satyrs played.

Percy launched himself at the titan, slashing and hacking away. Despite his skill, however, the leader of the Greek demigods found himself hard pressed to advance as his adversary equaled him in technique and parried all of his attacks. Every once in a while, Percy caught himself taking a blunt blow from a counterattack that made him wince, regardless of the lack of actual damage. He forced himself back on his feet and charged forth once more, attempting to bifurcate the legs of the titan.

A moment later, arrows stuck itself onto the titan all over; his leg that three on his right knee, four on his chest, and the Hyperion sported a solid arrow on the center of his forehead. Hyperion roared, hissing violently at the nuisance the ants were giving him. He'd concede that they were stronger than some groups of demigods, but they could hardly hold a candle to him! He felt the power inside of him begin to expose itself in the physical world as he channeled the flames and burst into a miniature hearth of heat.

Completely floored, the campers backpedaled from the titan as it marched onward, closing the distance with his large steps creating miniature earthquakes each time his feet made contact with the earth.

Hyperion caught himself developing a smirk, sadistically gleeful as the titan observed the panicking demigods. Arrows were burnt to ash before ever making contact with his skin; no campers dared to use their blades on the titan as the heat was too great; Hyperion gave a dark chuckle when one of the campers thought it to be wise to emit fire at the titan of flames, light, and power. Nay, the only demigod that could stand against him was Perseus Jackson, and he would do everything in his power to defeat the puny child and make him an example before joining his brothers and leader.

However, that was not to be. Percy, as if sensing that if Hyperion crossed the bridge that all would be lost, felt immensely pressured. He felt the heat _exuding_ from the titan...but he also felt the ocean's call. It was greater than before, beckoning him - no, pleading him - to ask it to help him.

So Percy Jackson did.

All demigods present would remember this moment. It was then that Percy Jackson ingrained himself into history as not only the leader of the demigods against **Kronos** , but also as one of the most powerful demigods to ever exist. Thousands of gallons of water shot up in violent jetstreams high above the bridge from the river. A small hurricane the size of Hyperion encircled Percy, raising him to eye level with Hyperion and mercilessly whittling away the flames. Hyperion grimaced and roared as the flames died down, and then howled in pain when the water above the bridge rained down with incredible pressure and speed, creating holes through the body of the titan. Percy exploded out of the hurricane suddenly at the weakened, kneeling titan who immediately shot out a finger at the incoming son of Poseidon.

Percy raised his sword over his shoulder - he would thank the gods later for this - and blocked a ray of light that would have, no doubt, knocked him away from his goal. Fluidly taking in the impact, Percy pushed forward using water to boost his speed, and was soon in the titan's face. When he swung his blade this time, there was no answer except golden blood splaying across the ground and dripping to the earth. Percy continued his onslaught with impunity, utilizing both his blade and his enormously increased grasp over his domain, and now had utterly taken over the fight. The final blow was struck, and Hyperion faded, but not before ominously warning -

"My brother will kill you Perseus Jackson, and I will have my revenge."

Through all this, Annabeth did not notice the giddy feeling of victory ever escape. However, when an explosion, originating from the forest where Naruto had disappeared with the leader of the titans, was heard, she felt her heart sink with worry. Moments later, the bridge shuddered from the earthquake that threatened to snap the foundations, and many demigods lost their footing. Those that were displaced, wobbling, or on one foot found themselves soon on the ground as a strong wind blew from the far end of the bridge.

Without a second thought, Annabeth yelled at Percy, "Finish off the monsters and clean up the bridge!" She then turned towards the forest ahead, sprinting with all that her body would allow and more. There was something gnawing at her chest, quietly, yet desperately whispering her to hurry. Hurry. _Hurry!_

She had been fighting all out for the past twenty minutes, and it was beginning to take a toll on her. The sprinting was only aggravating the lack of ideal physical state she was in, her breathing becoming more and more ragged and her form slightly. However, she continued to spring, the voice having evolved from a whisper to a blood curdling murmur.

A minute later, the girl bolted through a bush and literally tore through the forest. She caught the sight of the blond against a tree, unconscious. She then saw **Kronos.** The titan was uncomfortably close to the blond. The being in Luke Castellan's body was cursing the weakness of the human capsule, crawling on the ground with his scythe on his right hand. The detonation had blasted him away in the opposite direction and had taken almost all of his physical capabilities without more rest; the _Curse of Achilles_ was kicking in too early! He couldn't walk yet, so he crawled, biting in his pride for however long it took to kill the blond. When he caught sight of the unconscious ninja, **Kronos** couldn't help himself. He laughed, and continued to move forward. He moved, and chuckled. Soon, he was close enough to end the blond's life with a single swing.

The chance would never come.

Annabeth kicked the titan in the chin with all of her strength, her eyes a steely glare and hard set, determined, and her mind in a rage now. The voice had disappeared, but she hadn't noticed.

 **Kronos** grunted as he fell onto his back. He eyed the girl above him with his deadly, golden orbs. If looks could kill, Annabeth would be removed from all of existence and memory. However, she remained, looking _down_ at the primordial inside of her old friend's body, her dagger shaking in her hand. With no hesitation in her mind, she proceeded to beat the titan. Nearly five minutes later, she stood up again and stepped away, gasping for air. She slipped and fell on her butt.

"You...you failed, **Kronos** ," she declared. The cheers from the bridge were heard from where she was; she couldn't smile from exhaustion, but she could feel her heart lift. She had saved Naruto, and they had just won the war on their end.

" **It's not over yet, darling** ," **Kronos** replied after a moment. " **You cannot kill me, and not all of my brothers are dead. This is far from over.** " The threat whizzed right over Annabeth's head. No, to her, this was over.

She scoffed. "Tell that to the gods after I haul your ass up to Olympus. You'll be tried under the twelve major gods and found guilty. You lose. Percy defeated Hyperion, and Naruto defeated you. It's over!" She was unsure how this would all fill into the prophecy, but no matter. She stood up, once again towering over the downed titan, who was impatiently waiting for his body to regain strength. Any strength as to incapacitate this irritating girl and escape; he'd have return another day to raze Olympus if he were to succeed. "Don't get any ideas in your head, titan. Planning and smarts were never your strong suit."

 **Kronos** let loose a guttural growl. " **I will kill that boy, and I will kill you after. Slowly. Of that, I promise...after Typhon defeats the weak gods and your even weaker camp defying us.** "

Annabeth widened her eyes and cursed. She had been so focused on the titan before her and Hyperion that she had forgotten...there was Typhon. Letting out another curse, she turned away from **Kronos** and eyed Naruto for a moment.

A rumble so powerful that trees began to uproot. Annabeth fell and latched onto a tree trunk. **Kronos** began to laugh darkly with no humor, but only the concept of death in his mind.

Typhon had come.

Naruto opened his eyes.

 **Chapter End.**

 **A/N: Cy next time! Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and it's better than the last.**

 **As always, please leave a review! I love reading the comments and criticisms! Hearing that people like this story makes me want to write more, and hopefully I improve so that people want to review. It's a cycle! That being said: no flames, please!**

 **Appreciation shout out to TheSilentFan for assistance in power scaling!**

 **KenzoXShuyita, peacing out!**

 **A/N:**


	6. Deities

**Deities**

 **A/N: Finals Week for the Summer, but I'm done!...Until next summer session so...meh. Not much to say for this other than, as always, I hope you enjoy! Mind you, there are a few changes, as there always are.**

 **Review Responses: Moved to the end of the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything**

 **Chapter 6 START**

A deep, stormy set of grey looked into and lost herself in a set of blue eyes that had of steel of resolve behind the eyes. The temperature behind the set of cold blue turned icy, almost indigo as it pooled together power and backbone. It held in its gaze willingness, darkness, sadness, loneliness, happiness...and most of all, warmth.

Annabeth hitched a breath in surprise to see the conscious blond's eyes staring back at her. He was breathing and returned to the world.

The daughter of Athena wasn't sure _why_ she was so understanding of the blond and accepting to trust him, despite of the hard times of war. Someone joining in the middle of the war when tensions were already at its breaking point would usually result in immediate suspicion eyes on the back of their head at all times. And yet, she hadn't ordered any of that. The blond teen had removed almost all insecurities about him, despite his poor usage of English and grammar, when he had managed to get his feelings and thoughts across in a different manner.

Naruto had warmth in cascades. It was so thick and addictive, it may have been tangible. Annabeth had talked to her fellow leader and Percy agreed with her. Naruto had something inside that just made others want to trust him and collect themselves around the blond with him as the center. It didn't matter if this was war and their head was telling them 'no, this was a bad idea.' Their hearts were telling them 'yes, trust this person.' It certainly helped that the eccentric teen with a metal headband was powerful as well as smart, defeating **Kronos** at his own game on the bridge the day before. That had given the camp a reason to give the blond the benefit of the doubt.

But now, looking at the blond who was leaning against the tree - he was already getting up - and **Kronos** at her feet, she was certain. Naruto was able to be trusted. It didn't matter if he were not a demigod. He had proven himself through his actions that he was someone that lived by his words and actions, and she now had a reason to believe him. She wouldn't give up her life for him, but she was willing to help him.

"Thanks." Naruto accepted the hand Annabeth gave and pulled himself up. He staggered, the blood rushing to his head and cramps running up his legs. "Oh, I'm going to feel this tomorrow, even with a massage," he muttered under his breath. He hadn't been expecting such a large backlash from using more chakra; a consequence, absolutely, but not to this degree. This was far beyond his calculations. True, his chakra reserves were still at a decent spot, but he had used far more than what his body was used to using. He would need training, asap.

He tripped over his sandal and cursed, nearly keeling over from exhaustion. Annabeth caught him under the shoulder and hooked his arm over her neck with the boy leaning against her. She grit her teeth; her legs were also desperately gasping for oxygen, but she would have to ignore their pleas and help the blond who needed it more. She looked up to him and caught a thankful smile, completely genuine. That smile...it made her glad that she had accepted him into the camp; all of the arguments rampaging in her head slowly dissolved into nothingness. There was no need for them for now. Not when he had already done so much for them.

She shot back her own grin, full of pride and mirth. "Didn't expect you to need my help, Mr. I-run-at-the-speed-of-sound," she said, poking fun. Naruto raised his eyebrows and then barked out a laugh, entirely amused. Even his laughter was warm and made her relax around him, wanting to know more about him. He was probably the most comfortable and attuned to people person that she had ever met.

When his chuckles subsided, Naruto tilted his head up and looked up at the sky. No clouds and clear blue. "Alright, that's enough fun." He looked down at the titan on the ground, the downed growling with a scowl right back. **Kronos** had ceased to crawl and scrape at the ground in an attempt to fight back, instead flush against the forest ground on his stomach and his chin digging into the earth in his anger. Slowly, he was regaining strength, but it wouldn't be enough to fight back, especially against Percy Jackson unless he had at least an hour. He grimaced. Knowing what he gathered about the enigmatic blond, there was no way he was getting another hour. The fact that Typhon was here and that Naruto was hardly in better shape than he was not giving him as much hope as he would have liked. He cursed his hubris, but with more strength behind it, he cursed the blond and the wrench Naruto threw into all of his plans. He had ruined everything...this time.

Naruto and Annabeth looked down at him. **Kronos** _hated_ that. They weren't just looking down at him from above literally, but figuratively as well.

"You aren't going to get a second chance. Not again," Annabeth promised, her voice full of conviction, as if she knew the reality of the future; it was all under her control.

He may not have strength, but he had a voice. "I will _kill_ you!" **Kronos** rumbled, seething from his position on the ground, groveling. Annabeth set her jaw and set her back straight, surprisingly the blond leaning against her.

The voice that left her was steelier than the one that had left last. "You will _not_ kill me. I will not die today to your hands, titan," she spat out. She felt a warm, calloused hand grip her shoulder in support. Annabeth, encouraged, felt the fire inside of her spread. "You may have beaten Luke and taken over his body and taken him away from us - from _me -_ but you sure as hell won't beat me, **Kronos**."

The titan was opening his mouth, as if to retort something. Naruto took the chance to kick dirt into his mouth and ignored the coughing that ensued. Annabeth couldn't help it; she laughed. A titan, coughing on titan that a human kicked into his mouth. This was golden.

"Shut up," Naruto ordered, his voice filled with ice. He had not raised his voice nor filled it with venom or anger, but only with steel. For some reason, however, it made Naruto far more menacing than if he had. "I'm sick you talking." The blond turned away from the titan and faced Annabeth, who was staring at him with a quizzical expression. "We have to go back to camp, but we can't leave this idiot here, or else he'll recover." Annabeth nodded in understanding, rustling a few bangs to drop in front of her eyes.

"Right, let's do -"

Suddenly, the earth itself rumbled. The trees and branches attached to each life of nature shook violently, letting free greens unwillingly. Naruto widened his eyes in shock, sensing a tremendous amount of power explode from the ocean, close to where the campers were fighting the monsters back at the bridge. In fact, it was fast approaching the bridge, it seemed.

 _'Holy! There's no way I can fight that thing head on at my current strength...'_ Naruto stiffened, realizing that there was little he could actually do or think to do in this situation. If the presence of power he felt was gauged correctly, not even his version of the Bijuudama with a **Rasengan** could take down whatever had made itself loud and present. He had barely managed the technique due to the amount of chakra and the density of his life energy; he had managed to separate negative and positive energies after a few tries last night with the clones, but a mini beast bomb was the best that he could manage. He'd need a full powered one at the minimum, in his calculations, to defeat whatever came. And he was far from full power and the control needed to be able to pull that off.

There were other sudden influxes of power, seemingly in tandem against the gigantic source of energy, but they didn't seem to be doing much to hold it back. He gave Annabeth a sideways glance, and her expression told him that she knew exactly what was going on.

"Typhon," she whispered, frightened. It was only when Annabeth noticed the hand on her shoulder tighten again did she catch she was shaking in fear. Taking a deep breath, she thought up a plan and snapped opened her eyes. "I have a plan." She had lost the visage of despair and had donned the look of strength and conviction. Naruto felt his lips tug upwards.

"Let's hear it!"

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Bridge)**

"By the gods..." Michael ushered out, eyes wide in both awe and utter shock as the gigantic being towered over them. Typhon had come, and he loomed ominously over all of the demigods and mythical beings, and he didn't wasn't even at full height if the bent body was anything to go by. The titan continued to rise, surpassing the height of the Empire State Building and seemingly able to the touch the clouds. If anything, it looked like the colossal being could use the tallest skyscraper as a baseball bat! And it was hardly to be seen, surrounded by tornadoes and covered by dark clouds from the waist up.

Percy paid the murmurs around him no mind. He was in overdrive currently, and his mind was about in the same shape as his body: in badly need of rest. But he wouldn't get any, not now, if the situation was anything to go by. The gods had appeared, and they were fighting against Typhon, but their attacks had done nothing. The morale they had brought for a moment had crashed and sunk lower than it originally was hardly a minute later.

 _"Puny demigods,"_ a voice thundered from above. The majority on the bridge had raised both hands to their ears in pain, a few dropping their weapons and shields in the process. Percy had stuffed his ears with some water as an insulator to noise immediately and balanced it so that the voice was no more than a regular speaking tone. He widened his eyes in shock when he felt the bridge rattle; simply speaking, the titan had caused the structure to nearly collapse.

Without another thought of 'we need to get out of here' and already moving, Percy issued the order and started racing down the length of the bridge back to the mainland. Demigods were durable, yes, and they could most likely survive the drop to the waters over a couple hundred feet below, but he wasn't risking it. As the leader of Camp Half Blood, there was no way he was going to let that up to chance, especially when anyone that dropped could drown from a tidal wave if the titan so much as took a step. To the titan, he'd be casually walking, wading in the water with the liquid hardly halfway up his calves. To the demigods, however, they'd be drowning, thrown uselessly under Percy's own element, and the son of Poseidon was unsure if he would be able to save everyone underwater, even at full power.

"I said _run_!" he shouted. All of the demigods seemed to get the message this time as hearing returned to them. They all sprinted, rushing back to camp as fast as their burning legs would allow. This was no time to complain, this was time to push their bodies to the limit and far more if they wanted to survive. If it were a normal race day, many of the demigods would have slowed down significantly at this point as their legs were reduced to jello. However, adrenaline was pumping through every person as the 'fight-or-flight' syndrome held true, and flight took immediately precedence. There was no way that they would be able to fight against _that_. Sadly, it did not seem that the titan have the idea of leaving the beings on the bridge alone, despite the hardly itching attacks that attempted to pierce his thick, calloused skin. The titan had raised his hand, and was prepared since the dawn of his existence to wreak havoc.

The hand approached slowly - oh, so slowly - towards the bridge, its shadow covering all in the fray.

Percy turned so that he was no longer running away, ignoring the incoming traffic and shouldering his friends away that tried to tell him to run. "I can't!" he voiced, painstakingly clear that he was just as desperate and afraid as they were, but taking the hero's role. The power of the curse may save him, but who knows how long it would take for him to recover if he took on damage like this. And who's to say that the crumbling gravity of the incoming hand wouldn't find his weak spot and kill him? Percy gnawed his teeth and raised his hands, using all of his power and drawing in more...more... _more_. He wouldn't let his friends die today! This was the purpose of his power! He would save his friends, and they would escape and survive, all of them! They'd survive!

Roaring with exertion, Percy continued to beckon the ocean to his call. Thousands upon thousands of gallons answered and heeded to his plea, shooting up at high velocity in the opposite direction of the hand. A moment later, the body of water made impact with the whole limb from the titan, not only trying to stop the hand but using leverage to attempt to push the titan back. Percy immediately stumbled to one knee, crying out once he felt the _power_ the titan was pushing down on his own, seemingly feeble, source of resistance. His eyes had clenched shut, but he could hear all of his friends screaming as he knew the hand was coming closer. Closer to him, and closer to them. All of them were in the splash zone, and blood would be spilled.

 _'Maybe I wasn't the child of prophecy.'_

Percy forcibly strained his whole body, every muscle taut and giving all that they could give. Water continued to rise, far more than he could ever handle before, and the weight continued to crush down on the demigod who took the risk upon himself. But he fought, gasping for air, nearly hyperventilating from asking for more oxygen to fill his body as he slipped his way onto both feet, summoning double, then triple the max he could call at his whim before.

The boy's eyes turned dark in despair as he continued to roar, his cheeks stretching as his mouth widened from his scream. The hand continued to lumber down, closing the distance from air to solid ground, slower that before, but coming nonetheless. His best effort wasn't enough. The gods hacking away at his skin...wasn't enough. A clap of thunder that had given Percy a moment of hope, of respite, and a belief of chance, wasn't enough. Zeus' _Master Bolt_ had hardly knocked the titan back an inch before it continued on its objective to ruin the children of the deities in power. Percy felt tears edging out of his eyes. Whether it was from effort or from the impending sorrow from death he would soon face and possibly be a part of, he wasn't sure. But he didn't care.

if this was his last moment of life, then he'd burn everything he could in these last few seconds.

 _'I have more! I won't die like this!'_ Percy roared defiant in the face of death, burning through his limiter. Instead of summoning more water, he chose to push back harder, fiercer, attempting to pierce the skin at the same time.

Suddenly, the hand stopped, and then retracted. Percy, noticing this, crumbled to the ground and felt his chest heave, up and down...up and down, as his lungs shoved against his rib cage. He knew that the hand had not been stopped and pushed back by his power, but he didn't care. He was too thankful, too tired, and now too unconscious to even see what had stopped all from dying.

Clarisse was at the fallen demigod's side a minute later, scooping him up with care. There was a rare look in her eyes that showed kindness and deference to the boy that had given his all to try to save them.

She had ordered the fleeing soldiers to keep running when she noticed that the gigantic shadow had disappeared. The others continued to run, but she stopped and took a single moment to look over her shoulder at the sole soldier that had decided to stay and hold back the hand so that the rest could live. To her amazement, the hand was retracting, and she saw, in the horizon of her vision, the black-haired demigod on the ground, not moving. Something stirred inside of her, and trusting her body more than her head, she completely whirled and reversed directions, running right back towards where the danger had originated. A minute later, she was kneeling at Percy's side.

As she ran back towards the mainland with the unconscious demigod in tow, she craned her up and thought she two unfamiliar specks that were moving on the titan's arms. Ignoring this for imagination, she looked away and focused solely on escaping. They'd have to trust the gods for this fight.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Location: Typhon's shoulder)**

Annabeth wondered to herself 'why did I think this was a good idea.' Of all the ideas that that been extracted from her head, this would be the one that stood out as the most crazy, insane, stupid idea that she had _ever_ come up with. And there were a _lot_ of plans. Seriously...what made her think bartering - and if that failed - or wasting time for the sake of the gods was a good idea against a primordial being?

Naruto had recovered enough energy and carried the blonde child of Athena and their package, **Kronos** , up the body of Typhon until they were on the shoulder of the titan. Annabeth felt what it was like to travel at Naruto's speed, and it took her breath away. Literally. Her hair had whipped behind her uncontrollably and her mouth had stretched backwards from the force of resistance. She raised a hand to her jaw and moved in side to side gingerly; she would never open her mouth against if she traveled with Naruto at that speed.

"Typhon!" she shouted as loudly as her vocal chords managed, but the storm of winds and lightning drowned her out. No response, and the hand continue to push downwards. She saw the mass of water pool together and rise, and she whipped her head back to the titan, her eyebrows knotted together as she frantically shouted to attempt to get the titan's attention, screaming into his ear.

Naruto summoned a clone, and it held onto Annabeth and **Kronos**. Content that they wouldn't fall to their deaths, Naruto reinforced his whole body with chakra and then jumped up with enough force to push through the thunder clouds. Then, he proceeded to punch the titan in the cheek with as much force as he could muster into one blow. It had hardly any effect, not even moving the titan other than rippling the titan's cheek. However, when Naruto looked up when he landed, he caught the titan's eyes staring straight at him without turning in his direction, the clouds suddenly gone and the wind much calmer.

"Did I catch your attention, big guy?!" The titan seemed to hear as he gave its full attention to the two at his shoulder, still ignoring the blasts of energy from the sky and from the other gods. It gave a swat at one of the gods that left an opening and Naruto and Annabeth watched, slack jawed, as the one struck flew through multiple skyscrapers and destroyed a fifty-foot being before groaning at his stop. Naruto unconsciously cracked the vertebrate together at the sight. "This was such a good idea. We're going to get squashed," he whispered without looking at Annabeth.

Annabeth stepped forward, not giving Naruto an answer to his completely realistic opinion, and spoke. "We have **Kronos** here. Back off, or we kill him." To emphasize her point, she pulled out a dagger, its dangerous edge glinting in the sunlight. She watched as the titan's pupils dilated, and then narrowed, looking at each member with scrutiny. Naruto lifted the titan up to the gaze, and Typhon seemingly recoiled in recognition.

 _"Brother."_ The voice was raspy, coarse, and unwelcome Naruto and Annabeth. It was hardly a whisper, but it took forced the clone holding onto Annabeth to grip the shoulder with chakra. Naruto let a small frown mar his facial features, his three whiskers becoming more prominent.

"Yea, we got him," Annabeth started, her eyes seeming to grimace at the memory of Luke. She forcefully continued. "Here's the deal. You back off, and we don't kill **Kronos.** "

" **They're lying. Kill them!** " **Kronos** ordered. Naruto casually turned the titan around and punched his abdomen unflinchingly. **Kronos** gagged and couched in reflex, hands scrambling to his stomach in instinct. If he didn't have the curse, he knew that that the lazy punch the blond had just given him would've knocked him cold. It was Naruto's way of saying 'shut up or you'll never recover.' Naruto's eyes seemed to say the same thing.

"I wouldn't try that, if I were you." Annabeth flinched when she saw the titan shift and begin to raise his left arm. "We don't need to know where his curse is to kill him; Naruto has an ability that can literally needle it out." She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she caught the arm stop, and then drop back to his side. The rest of the gods circling the titan seemed puzzled by the lack of hostility, but they continued attacking. Typhon didn't care; he was more preoccupied with another priority. His brother.

Somehow, he had gotten himself caught, and now Typhon was feeling the burn. He was between a rock and a hard place. There were a few gods around, and he could defeat them now, but **Kronos** was downed and may die if he didn't make a sign of retreat. But, if he stayed still, reinforcements could come and there would be more gods in the fray, and that would leave uncertainty of his victory in the air.

Naruto felt the wind pick up and his frowned deepened. This plan of Annabeth's was not working, and he could see the shifting thoughts in Typhon's eyes. He would need to act, and fast.

Before he could move, a gigantic eruption from far below echoed up, shifting the titan's footing and making all of its inhabitants wobble. Only Naruto seemed stable as he looked down in bemusement before spying something that made him seriously question this world.

"What in Kami's name are those cyclops all screaming 'peanut butter?'" His eyes widened as chains flew up, far longer than he'd ever seen as they towered even the titan itself. He turned, his hair flipped in the opposite direction from the speed, before smoothly grabbing Annabeth, who let out a gasp, by the waist and **Kronos** by the scruff of his collar. "We gotta go! Hold on!"

And then he jumped. Over six hundred foot in the air, and he jumped. Annabeth did the only reasonable thing she could think of.

She screamed.

She screamed for dear life, praying to the gods above that she would survive. If she survived, she would give offerings to the gods. Every. Day. She would then get back at the stupid blond named Naruto, and would then torture him. Oh, he'd see. She saw his lemons in the pocket of his pants when his jacket flapped up. There was a lot of ways one could get back with lemons and -

"Can you stop that? I promise I know what I'm doing!" Naruto yelled, his eyes narrowed in attempted concentration. Annabeth took a pause in her praying and scheming. "I can feel your negativity focused at me and I'm not liking it, whatever you're thinking. Just try to relax, alright!" Her eyebrows turned downward to showcase her anger and she yelled over her shoulder -

"How am I supposed to relax when I'm falling to my death?" She was about to speak more, but Naruto's gaze caught her eye. He was so calm and reassured, she couldn't help but droop her shoulders a bit. His whole face and the way he carried himself told her silently 'trust me.' She pouted. "Fine, I'll stop screaming. Doesn't mean I'll stop scheming, though."

Naruto showed her his canines when he smiled and turned his attention back to the floor that was rushing up to him.

"Osu! **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)**!" Hundreds of clones popped into life below him, preparing from the fall. Even if he could survive the fall, he needed the girl to calm down. **Kronos** however...Naruto chucked the titan with his left hand towards the bridge and watched in amusement as the titan disappeared, screaming a stream of curses at the blond until he was no longer heard. Shifting her weight on his shoulder, Naruto slid down on the clones and came to a stop just five feet off the ground, quickly jumped off and returned to the solid earth.

Annabeth rasped out a shaky breath as Naruto let her on her feet, and she wobbled a few steps. By the gods...one surprise after the other, this boy did not quit. She turned around with an exasperated expression, about to tell the blond off, but then she saw Typhon screaming into the air, the violence of the tornadoes only increasing in hostility and danger. However, Poseidon was determined, and the chains wrapped convincingly around the gigantic being as an opening to the earth made itself visible. She saw Naruto grimace when Tartarus opened, and she swore she heard him say 'vile', but she was too caught at the action before her. The gods were all working together in a strange dance of unison, taking down the final boss altogether. They were overpowering the titan, and only a few seconds later, Typhon was gone, deep inside the pits of Tartarus.

The two just stood there for a moment on the bridge in silence, the washing of waters and the 'woosh' of the winds only to be heard. Annabeth dropped, sitting on her buttocks and threw her hands into the air before laying her back flush against the concrete. All tension escaped her body, and she laughed. She _laughed_ like she hadn't done in years at the absurdity of past two days. She freely howled out the only emotion she could feel: happiness. With no other care in the world, the girl sat up like a rocket and whooped. Running over to the edge of the bridge, she whooped again, feelings of triumph and victory washing over her as the adrenaline ebbed away.

It was over.

It was finally _over_.

They had won!

"Go to Percy. I'll be right behind you with **Kronos**." Annabeth seemed to hesitate, but ended up giving Naruto her trust as she ran off. A momentary relapse...

 **"You liar!"** Naruto turned his neck to the voice that had spat out the accusation with venom and hatred. He saw **Kronos** , barely standing on his feet, glaring hard with such hatred Naruto had the expression impressed into his mind. He walked towards the titan, knowing that he was weak, he assumed it took all of the titan's energy to stand. He shouldn't be able to fight at all. However, Naruto found himself dodging an exceedingly slow slash of the scythe and catching a dismally weak punch to his shoulder. Lashing out harshly, Naruto punched the titan in the abdomen and sent him crashing on his back. Naruto stepped forwards, eyeing the titan as he struggled to move, but his body refused to comply; all the gas was completely burned out. Naruto stood at the titan's head and went to his knees, staring back with an expression of pity in contrast to the hatred. **"I'll kill you!"** Kronos shouted, knowing this had no real threat. But he couldn't just let this boy have the last say; he may be physically defeated, but mentally, he would continue to raze this world and hate it.

Naruto shook his head, his bangs swaying in response. He looked up and saw Annabeth, her whole body lifting with happiness as she ran towards her camp. He had no doubt that if she turned around, he would catch one of the brightest smiles in his life. Beyond her, the world was slowly turning in clock out, the sun ebbing away and slipping quietly over the horizon. The sky was painted with slight hues of pink, orange, red, and purple as figurative finger brushes lightly, faintly touched across the sky with deftness. Naruto looked over to the other side of the bridge, where he caught the sight of demigods, satyrs...and men connected to horses (?) all cheering, jumping around in jubilation. This world was not so different from his old world. Besides technology and a few terms, all of them were people. And it seemed that the beings of this world had their own _Will of Fire._

 _"Beautiful."_ Naruto breathed out, a weakly fond look in his eye as he caught the sights of the city from his vantage. Looking back down, all fondness slipped away and only pity remained.

"You know-" Naruto started, his eyes abounding with sadness and longing, and a kind of empathy. The titan hated it, deplored it...looking up - he hated this, too - at the blond, every fiber of his being wished to fight against this feeling of disgust contaminating every cell. What did this child know? Nothing, that's what. But Naruto continued. "-I don't see why you want to destroy something so beautiful and free. Maybe it's in your being now, but I know you weren't before. If there's anything I learned from 'look underneath the underneath', I'll have to say that those myths that speak of you with wonder in your first years of reign were true." Naruto gave the titan a weaker, but such a tired smile. "Makes you wonder how people change and why they think the way they do. Why is it never enough to have what you have, if you've done what you could and gave it your all? Why is it necessary to take more than what you need, or infringe on other's happiness and possessions. It's always confused me."

 **Kronos,** for the first time in many, many years, caught himself remaining silent in the presence of this boy. He was human, he was young, but he was also misjudged. The titan realized that the boy was far older in maturity than he had let on. Naruto looked up to the sky and sat on his butt, feeling the negativity lower by a touch. He knew the titan was listening.

"You'll probably die-" The negative energy spiked, but dropped immediately in recognition to the truth. "-and that's just how it is. Good people turn bad, and bad people turn good. But that's the cycle of life. But even bad people can love, you know? I've seen it with my eyes, and it's the reason why I think the way I do." Naruto recalled the memories of Haku and Zabuza, and tears that he thought that were long gone for them emerged. He shuddered, but held on as his voice remained steady. "There was a master and pupil, and the pupil believed he was tool. Nothing more, and nothing less, but he was so infatuated and true to the idea that strength comes from the will to protect. I believed him. I then had something to truly fight for, and it wasn't just for acknowledgement." Naruto paused, blinking away tears. "We ended up fighting, and he almost killed my teammates. In a rage, I ended up managing to best him, despite his advantage over me. He called himself a broken and asked me to kill him, and I grudgingly accepted. But before I could, he apologized and bursted away, only to take the attack for the master he solemnly swore to protect...and he died." Naruto couldn't stop the tears, frowning but not willing to let the emotions cap itself. He had to let this out at some point; he missed home. He missed everyone, and maybe he would keep feeling this way for a long time. But at least after, he'd feel a bit better.

 **"What** happened?"The titan's voice switched halfway, seemingly vesting and fighting for power at the same time. However, the second voice won out, and it ended much softer, and serene. Almost accepting. Naruto looked down and no longer saw golden eyes, but far too innocent, blue eyes reflect back into his own. Naruto knew this was the man that had been taken over; the feelings of darkness and negative almost were completely dispersed. He gave the returned man a pat on the shoulder and smiled, knowing what it took to overcome someone mentally. Dropping his hand from his shoulder, he continued his tale.

"Zabuza cried. I yelled at him, accusing him for making Haku die and that his tears were a lie. But they were true and real. He cried not because he lost a tool, but because he lost someone precious to him. The pupil believed the whole time he was nothing more than a tool, and he would never know his master actually really loved him. He..." Naruto choked back a sob. "He also died that day as well...but to two of them birthed my ideology of a ninja. There was no one really beyond saving in the world. We all fight for our reasons, but in the heart of everyone, there's a love there that makes us do things people wouldn't imagine."

Luke closed his eyes in content, a warm smile sketched over his features. He liked that story...and he wished that he saw the world Naruto spoke of. He already inferred that the blond was from another world and decided to accept his assumption rather than state how crazy it was.

"Perhaps my reason was wrong in the end...but I did love the camp and my peers." He opened his eyes, and he saw Naruto looking off into the distance. "Mind sitting me up? I think have control over **Kronos** for a bit. I've been saving up my mental strength if the chance ever came across to take over." Once he was up with his arms hugging his legs, he saw what Naruto saw. "Yeah...that is beautiful, Naruto." Naruto half-nodded contemplatively, his red eyes from crying contrasting his blue pupils. He looked over and saw Luke doing the same.

"Do you want to say hi to them?" Luke shook his head, a wry, wistful smile edging his lips. It took all he had to make that small, jerky motion.

"If I did, they'd take me to the gods, and who knows what would happen to me then." Naruto understood.

 _'Torture.'_

"I don't know if I can handle the shame of seeing them again. I don't deserve it," he voiced out, now looking up at the sky as a plane whizzed past. Naruto was about to speak up, but Luke stopped him. "I know what you're going to say. I was given more than a second chance. In fact, I had a lot of chances, but I still chose this route. I'm ashamed of myself." He turned his head to look at Naruto and gave the blond a half-smile. The blond awkwardly returned the look. "I'm glad that you came. You'll take care of them, right?" Naruto was prepared to reject, saying that he wasn't sure if he could do something like that, but he caught Luke staring at him with _those_ eyes. "Please?"

That did it. Naruto's shoulders sagged, as if the weight of the world collapsed on him.

"Fine," he quietly acquiesced. Luke gave the blond a genuine smile that reached his eyes.

"Thanks."

And that was it. The two men were silent for a few more seconds, watching with different expressions as Annabeth ran over to the camp on the other side of the bridge, since she knew Naruto would take care of **Kronos**. Naruto chuckled; weird that she left him with the titan without asking him any questions; she trusted far too easily. Maybe the children of Athena lacked common sense at times. She pointed over to the two across the bridge, and the whole camp began to congress together and walk in unison. Luke turned his gaze away and spotted a few chariots in the air approaching them.

"Look like my time's up." He matched Naruto's eyes, the smile never leaving his lips. "Do me one last favor, will you? Could you take out my dagger in my armor?" Luke was thankful that Naruto did so unquestioningly. It wasn't like he could fight with the condition his body was in anyway. Naruto's eyes tracked the blade as Luke struggled to lift it, but the boy, determined, carried on his mission. When the blade approached his shoulder, Luke felt a tug of resistance in his mind, but he mentally squashed it and marched onward. It had to be done.

"Ah..." Luke whispered in a hush. The blade had cut the curse of Achilles, and he could _feel_ the pain. More importantly, however, he saw the blond's expression across from him full of pride and sadness, a sorrowful smile gracing his lips. Luke understood, and he knew that the blond in front of him understood him. Empathy...what a powerful feeling, he thought. If only he had realized and grown sooner, then perhaps all of this wouldn't be necessary.

"Thank you." And then the life left his blue eyes that remained open. Naruto cried as he closed the Luke's eyes. Somehow...he just knew...he just _knew_ the pain and sacrifice the hero had gone through. Even though he was the one that was willingly allowed **Kronos** to consume him and lead demigods against demigods, Naruto could feel that the man was not wrong where it mattered in the end. His heart was in the right place.

Wiping his tears away with the cotton cloth of his sleeves, Naruto sniffled and clapped his cheeks. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his linen pants as he stood up, the locus of the approaching gods and demigods. When they saw the dead body, they looked at him, a myriad of expressions adorning each person's face. When they asked what happened, he saw the impact his response had immediately after. Annabeth sent him a look of betrayal before crying. Percy was clenching his fists, no tears flowing down his cheeks but frowning with all of his strength as two droplets ran down the length of his face. Ethan chose to express nothing visually, but he was in great turmoil inside. Many of the campers looked downtrodden. The gods had the most variance of emotions, but the one that caught Naruto's attention the most was a little girl whose eyes were filled with fire. She was beautiful and young, but in regal sort of way by the methods by which she carried herself.

She showed sympathy to the dead boy and empathy the blond teen that was crying inside.

"He's dead."

 **Chapter End.**

 **A/N: Surprise! Hope to see you soon, and please leave reviews! I really appreciate them!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Ultracohls: Dude thank you! I'm so glad to hear that you're seeing improvement. Hope that you enjoy this chapter more than before, as always!**

 **Max Moreno: Cries sadly, no Kurama and friendship arc between the two.**

 **TypedSomeWords: Dude, I read all of your reviews and I gotta say "thank you" for all of them. They helped directly for grammar and made me think. So thanks. And yup, this story has a ways to go, and I do hope you continue finding amusement enough to keep reading.**

 **Fuyuriku: You're welcome! Thanks for the review!**

 **GuardianoftheUniverse: Lmfao here's the next chapter! Hope it was decent.**

 **X-Ownz: Well, he was quite awake so...dunno :D**

 **Helrio Uzugaku: Kekeke sorry if this chapter wasn't what you were expecting. But this is what I ended up with.**

 **Rio Skyron: Zeus is same ol' Zeus. And lul same, rip Kronos.**

 **MohammedOssama999: Zeus doesn't want to smite Ethan simply because there are other things on his mind, which will come into play another chapter. Kronos did try to slash, but Naruto would duck or block, so variable combat was the answer. Rip, didn't remember that. And hey, thanks fore reading and leaving a review! Appreciate :D**

 **The Sorrowful Deity: Explanations to come**

 **TBM10: I hope this chapter is best than before, as per usual. Haha, it's always the grind to improve. As always, I'll keep working on grinding out the chapters as long as I got the drive!**

 **Ultima-Owner: I bet this is not the fight you were expecting, hmmm.**

 **Frankieu: Haha, hope it remained interesting.**

 **The Silent Fan: Real life was done, so here's a chapter! Hope it was decent.**

 **Grimreaper40045: And the father of monsters is gone just as fast, lul.**

 **Guardian of the Inheritance: Hope I kept the decent work up!**

 **KaminoKenjutsu: Hey bruh, I gotchu! Haven't seen you around before!**

 **Guest: Thank you! I will do!**

 **shadow: Yee! I'm working for the continued growth!**

 **Tal House: Dude, power balancing is an absolute..UGH. But thank you so much for recognizing that! Seriously, figuring how to deal with an OP Naruto that just takes over the whole universe is not that fun to me. Maybe for some, but to me...meh. What else would you do to balance him?**

 **Aqua-Sensei: Lmfao at praise the log. Always praise the log. Yea, Naruto never figured out how to use the Bijuudama, but I'll explain that in another chapter! And I really enjoyed reading your review, tbh. Your thoughts were very coherent and I could see what got you interested. I like it!**

 **Guest: woahhh...one of the best is quite the honor. o.O**

 **Conrado88: I'll work on the Dark Flash when I think I'm good enough to write it again. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but I'm closing in on where I was before in the skill department.**

 **Train Heartnett: Yeet! xD**

 **Guest: Good video. I actually watched all of it. Thank you for the suggestion.**

 **He Who Seeks The Joys in Life: sorry if I disappointed. Not that much of a fight, xD**


	7. Demigods, Gods, and One Ninja

**Demigods, Gods, and one Ninja**

 **A/N: Thank you so much for reading this far. I hope that this continues to be a good story in your eyes and here's a treat of a 10K word chapter! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

 **Chapter 7 START**

Life is unfair, and not all are born into equal standings. Naruto could take this statement any day and readily beat this sentence black and blue with his own life experiences to properly portray how severely underrated this fact was. He was capable of making almost any person in his old world sympathetic and this new world cry from his memories, and that would have been simple.

No, life was not at all a fair mistress. She would give one the greatest gifts and the finest touch of arts, and the other, scorn. Rage. Hatred. She would gladly, gracefully, and lovingly sigh as her fingers brushed delicately on the creation of her doing, as it came to life and did everything it was meant to. And she wouldn't even look in the way of those she created without a mere thought in her actions, ignoring whatever became of it. Indifference was truly frightening.

Konoha had attempted to create a monster out of the boy who held in the **Kyuubi** out of hate. It was very, _very_ lucky that they failed.

It was on the way up to Olympus that Naruto began to think deeply, seriously pondering in thought despite the elevator music that consistently failed to break the awkward mood and rather enhance it. He stood in silence, his chin resting on his knuckles and his eyes half lidded and looking down, focusing on the metal floor while his mind ravaged through his past and his position and bias on every event. He was tired, oh, he was. But he was used to being tired. He was quite affiliated with the word _torture_ as well, so tired was a trivial occupation. It was a word Naruto would gladly take up over almost any other as a status ailment.

Not that he could ever really obtain a sickness or become drunk...unless they were the most deadly of sources.

But he digressed.

He was...disgruntled. He blinked. Was that the word that properly defined his thoughts currently? Tapping his foot rhythmically, he pushed away the vocabulary into the back of his skull and proceeded to pursue what was bothering him so much in the first place. Why was this whole situation between the gods and their children upsetting him so much? He _knew_ something was wrong, despite the fact he was all too familiar with the term orphan. He could possibly understand why some people simply didn't know their parents. But the majority of those orphans that had powerful parents had some kind of stable upbringing, and very rarely had too much difficulty living their lives from adolescence to adulthood.

He shook his head; it didn't matter that he didn't know who his parents were for the first sixteen years of his life. It _had_ crossed his mind that the Fourth Hokage of his village looked _eerily_ familiar to his own visage, and there was also the disturbing similarity between the blond locks of hair. But there was no proof. So he set it aside and was not going approach the matter any further until he felt it was absolutely necessary to bring it up to anybody. Which would be possibly when he became Hokage, which was also a long time coming. Regardless, it did not matter...even after he did find out that the Fourth Hokage was indeed his father.

What did matter was the children who were fathered by gods in this world and were ignored. It didn't even cross his mind that there was a _rule_ to ignore them. If he could curse - actually, forget that. He was better than that. But honestly, what in the world had their higher ups been thinking, if they were capable of that notion. He grumbled silently, his eyes narrowing dangerously as a barely visible canine made itself present. Those in the elevator seemed to notice the shift in Naruto's emotions and reacted unconsciously by all taking a step away from the gradually worsening blond. His easy smile was already shifted into a frown, as if cashier had taken the wrong order and delivered an abomination of a coffee at a 7:30 work day and it was too late to order another. And all this, because he was thinking for their whole cause. He took a moment to look up and saw the concern Annabeth showed him, and he quickly shot her a grin. It was true, and the stiffness in her shoulders, along with everyone else's, evaporated.

"Something on your mind?" Annabeth decided that silence in this moment was not an ideal situation. The elevator music was far from her choice, and any conversation over this creeping silence that roared was better. So she took the first step, catching onto Naruto's negatively shifting expressions. It worried her, but she _knew_ that he was a sunny person. He tended to have a happy-go-lucky disposition that put all at ease, and it wasn't just his charisma. Perhaps it was the genuine aspect of his persona. He was someone that struck you as relatable, and understood immediately in personal affairs. It also helped that he constantly wanted to learn, putting him in her book of decent people. He may have been there when Luke ended his life and may not have stopped him from committing suicide before she got to see him before he left his plane of existence, and she also may have blamed Naruto just a little bit, but she let it go when she saw the tear streaks that needed to be cleaned off his face.

Naruto scratched his cheek immediately, darting his eyes to the left. It was as if the anger was never there. "There is, but I think it's something I would like to discuss with the gods, if that's possible." There seemed to be reaction to his honesty, but Annabeth didn't show any visible changes that appeared surprised. Rather, her eyes showed clear curiosity as her pair brightened with lumos.

"I'm sure they'll grant you an audience." She then turned away and faced to the front of the elevator before talking to another person, who Naruto recognized as one of her half-brothers. He let a small smile grace his lips. She was a great person. Annabeth was decently tall, attractive, smart, had a strong personality and sense of drive that could put her in a decent position anywhere she could want. Thinking about it, the majority of the children of the gods were at least decently attractive and had features that were accented by their own gods' specific traits. All of the children of Athena were practically walking encyclopedias. The children of Apollo were archers and healers. And Percy, the son of Poseidon, had a connection with water that put many water affiliated ninjas from home to shame.

It seriously made him wonder why some gods would choose to ignore their children, or if the worse case was true, why ignoring them as a rule was the best solution they came up with. None of it made sense, and he would get an answer. He could go home later; he needed to help these kids now.

The elevator finally chimed sharply, alerting everyone that the ten minute ride up to Olympus was complete. The doors split down the middle and gave all inside the view hardly any would ever set their eyes upon. It was glorious, with gold and flames lighting up the entirety of the establishment that stood erect and tall, proudly above the mortals. Naruto eyed a few temples and felt rather disconnected with them; it was too different from the ones back home. A few of the demigods noticed his eyes flitting about, taking in the sights and, despite the obvious interest, showed nothing more than the simple interest one would express when coming upon something new or unique. The grandness and the sparkles did not seem to appeal to the blond. In fact, Naruto seemed rather displeased when the group of demigods crossed a particularly grandiose temple, a frown of annoyance sporting his face for a moment before dissipating. He took a step towards the temple to catch the name and, when unable to decipher it, let it be. Percy was rather doubly confused when Naruto not only was unable to read Greek but also showed indifference to the temple that hailed war and battle.

Finally, the demigods approached the throne room with its towering doors wide open. The massive room was filled with massive gods and monsters alike, already sat in their personalized chairs and their preferred spots on the ground, respectively. Naruto caught a feel for each of the beings sitting on the thrones and momentarily hesitated when he felt one that did not in any way direct towards negativity or curiosity. His eyes zoned in discreetly and he saw a young child, no more than twelve or thirteen, smiling warmly towards all of the children walking into the room. She then made eye contact with him and kept it for a moment before moving on to the next child that walk through the doors. It seemed like nothing, but Naruto knew it was far from it. Look underneath the underneath. He sucked in his cheeks and lips, breathed out through his nose, and took another breath before walking forward again when the gods beckoned them. There plenty of space for the children, and Naruto was pretty sure at least another few hundred would fit inside. He chose to reside in the middle of the pack.

"Demigods!"

A thunderous voice boomed to life, echoing in the chambers and all addressed straightened at the call. The god known as Zeus looked down on them strongly, his posture slouched but not without dignity. Naruto watched with hawk-eye focus as the gods took their turns looking among the sea of children, recognition coming to existence every once in a while. Zeus showed the same expression on one of the children, which Naruto connected to a girl named Thalia who he had yet to converse with. A wonder, as she was also one of the leaders. Perhaps she was out scouting at night like he was, and they had never crossed paths in their nightly habits. Or perhaps she was ignoring him. Whatever the cause was, the two had never actually met and only knew of each other through hearsay.

Zeus straightened in his throne and uncrossed his legs, sitting regally next to his wife, Hera. The two seemed to be happy, although not happy with the other if the minimal physical hand contact was a gesture to judge by. It was possible that the two were in love with each other before, but in Naruto's eyes, it seemed that neither were particularly pleased with the other. Nor by the other, for that matter, if the 'rumors' of Zeus' failed loyalty to Hera was the truth. Well, perhaps things were different here. It wasn't particularly uncommon for ninja to have multiple wives or have sex with those that weren't their marriage partner; life was short. People could die at any time out on the field, and every single day mattered. Not that Naruto particularly agreed with their actions, but it was't his place to say. He had his own position, and they had theirs. It didn't affect his life or the way things were done. But the gods and the way they interacted with their children...it may not particularly involve him, but it took him for a spin and set his moral compass all haywire. He had met the man that had allowed **Kronos** to take over, and Luke was far from the madman that he had expected. He was also a child of a god that was ignored and not taken care of, and it had created just another spiteful child in the masses of the spiteful that had a vendetta against the gods in the war. It was possible that there were many more with malicious intent. All it would take is another child that took their hatred and anger and put it to action that another war would surface.

And Naruto felt personally resolved to prevent that from happening.

So when Zeus rose in his chair and spoke, Naruto could hardly prevent himself from rolling his eyes at the royal speech that Zeus preached. The demigods were at strung as if his words were a trail of a the most delicious honey, but to Naruto, the rosemary words only lead to bullshit. He couldn't care less for the pompous words that Zeus spouted, speaking of such things as justice and righteousness. He visibly tensed when Zeus promised " **Kronos** will never come back, and so there will never be another war of the demigods!" He caught a few of the gods nodding agreeably at the unconvincing statement.

Naruto took this moment to speak out from the crowd; he couldn't handle it any more. He knew it wasn't his place nor the time, but damn these gods, they were not _his_ gods. And they were wrong to the highest division if Zeus was their leader with no decent counsel.

Without worrying about the possible consequences of not only interrupting but speaking against one of the more hot-blooded gods, Naruto said clearly and adamantly -

"You are wrong."

Zeus, in the middle of his speech and far from finishing, shut his mouth and let go of Hera's fingers suddenly. His free hands made their way to the corners of his throne and clenched, the veins straining against his skin and threatening to burst.

There was an immediate silence that permeated every crevice of the room and made their way into the souls of the frightened demigods and the monsters and the intrigued gods and goddesses.

All of the gods caught onto Zeus' anger, and knowing of his temper, few tried to appease him.

"Brother, think nothing of it," Poseidon tried, only to be sent a murderous glare. A demigod had slighted him, so he would _slight_ whoever spoke ill of him, just with a side dish of thunder.

"Father, I would advise against the lightning. The last time you did that, someone had to clean it, and no one wanted to, so the stain - and the stench - lasted for days," Athena advised. Zeus seemed to consider this before nodding very slowly. Athena sat back in her chair and relaxed; that was the most she could do for whatever idiotic soul decided to raise their voice in this happy day. All the speaker had to do was to remain silent and go home and live the rest of his life. It was no matter; it was his decision and the consequence would be a rather short life, it seemed.

None of the other gods seemed to speak up, although Hera's fingers slipping back into Zeus' seemed to make a small impression of the king of the gods. Seconds later, a ruffling of the demigods was caught and Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia who were at the front of the camp parted for the ethnic teen to pass them and into the view of all. Percy and Annabeth sent the blond their own concerned glances, terribly worried about the future that lay before Naruto, but Naruto was so confident as he walked forwards. He was tall, his chest out, and no facetious smile gracing his lips as he strode forth with equal steps that Annabeth nor Percy had the heart to stop him, grab his shoulders, and tell him to take it back. They doubted they even had the strength to do so, physically or mentally.

Naruto, once he was in the center of the room and in the eyes of all clearly, took a moment to eye every individual god in their thrones. Giving each one a stare, Naruto lingered upon Hestia, skipped over Zeus, and caught Artemis' curious glance at him. He returned to the furious gaze of the king, the lord of the gods, and the very one he felt was so _wrong._ And if he could do it to **Kronos,** he would definitely be able to talk a measly god into what was right or wrong. Surviving would be an afterthought at this moment.

"Would you repeat what you said, child?" Zeus proferred. The question was more than it seemed. He was giving the child a chance to repent, go on his knees and apologize, and depending on the sincerity of the apology, would accept and minimize the punishment. He was feeling particularly generous today, as it was a day to celebrate the victory of the gods and their extended rule and the defeat of the most vile titan. However, Naruto caught onto the slight accent on the world 'child' and realized that Zeus wished to know who the parent god was. The blond smiled knowingly and made no movement to bow.

"I am an orphan and do no know who my father or mother are. However, what I can say is that... _you are wrong._ " Naruto's voice deepened on the last three words, and his pupils seemed to dilate and darken, and yet shine in the light overhead. His voice held a kind of power that seemed to catch every demigod's attention, as if he were a leader, but did not force the voice nor shout it. It was natural and no louder or quieter than his usual speaking voice. But the tone was far different, and so was his posture. It was the kind of voice that demanded efficiency and when one heard it, they did what they were told. Naruto had heard it a few times in his life as there were only a few moments where it was actually necessary, and he caught onto the tone like a natural and kept it under cloak until a day came where it would be necessary.

Today came, and it seemed today was the day. He would need to speak to the god, Zeus, as an equal and not as one that was so far above. Otherwise, he would be ignored and, quite possibly, killed.

All of the gods were now focused on the blond that spoke confidently against their leader. It wasn't every day that something like this occurred. True, many demigods cursed the gods or spoke out against them, but very rarely did they actually have the determination or the lack of care for their own life to speak ill against them in their actual presence. And to speak against the head of the gods, not once, but _twice_ and do so confidently was certainly an event that would cause every major god to listen to rapt attention. Ares seemed particularly pleased and rather interested in the ballsy blond that was standing with a straight back against his father.

"You have spoken ill against me on this joyous day not once, but twice, and have rebuked my offer to apologize and to live. As such, I find it within my rights to punish you, child!" Suddenly, forks of lightning dispersed from his finger pointed in the direction of the blond. Naruto smirked, internally laughing at how quickly Zeus went against his word to not use lightning. You know, like a _liar._

The ground where Naruto stood blew up in smoke and rubble. Percy and Annabeth seemed visibly distraught and both that their hands out to where Naruto last stood, but they remained in front of the camp. Instead of walking forwards, they both dropped their hands and stood quietly, yet their emotions were everything but quiet and tranquil. Their fists clenched in rejection against the action the head of the gods had taken.

"That was wrong," Percy voiced, and in his anger, his power rose. His father sent him a warning glare, and Percy almost didn't comply until Annabeth wisely placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. She knew his pain, but she also knew that this was not the time to pick a fight. This was an area of uncharted waters with powers far above their own. It was better to not get involved. Percy let go of his tug on the molecules of water in the air and barely relaxed, but it was enough.

Many of the gods seemed displeased with the action Zeus taken as well. Even Ares, who usually appreciated violence, was far from happy to see the lightning and the resulting boom. Whether it was from the lack of power unclaimed, unknown child showed or the fact that his father acted like an idiot, it was hard to say. Hestia, however, had the most visible reaction, and showed remorse. She eyed Zeus and gave him a disapproving shake of her head, and that was all before she saw something and giggled.

"Well, he's gone and the interruption is over. Shall we proceed or does anyone else wish to speak out?" Zeus said rhetorically, not expecting any kind of rejection. However, when Hestia pointed over his shoulder, he was suddenly made aware of a bladed weapon at his throat and the very alive blond the wielder of the blade who was donning a growing smirk.

Zeus was far from worried; it would take more than a normal weapon to kill him, and even more to end his existence. Pain was not an unfamiliar term with him either, so a little blade to the neck would do little more than terribly upset him. So, with a grumble, Zeus let out exasperatedly, "You're still alive."

Percy and Annabeth, along with all of the other campers let out a breath of relief they didn't know they were holding. The gods eyed the blond glued to the throne sideways with far more curiosity, and Ares seemed to be itching to get into a fight for some reason.

"I am," Naruto replied simply. "I really didn't expect lightning to just come at me, though. Was really surprising, dattebayo."

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now." Naruto shrugged his shoulders, the movement not shaking the blade at the god's neck a centimeter. The skill and control did not go unnoticed by the spectators.

"Because you'd need far more power than your current form can uphold."

"What?!" Zeus roared, turning his head to give his full attention to Naruto. Suddenly, the blade beamed with energy and a hidden force hummed quietly. A blade longer than the metal pierced his skin, and golden ichor seeped out of his neck line. Another silence proceeded to conquer the room, this one more ominous than the last. "You are a threat, and should be eliminated immediately..." Zeus threatened.

"I wouldn't use your true form here, and you know what would happen if you did." The gods looked at the demigods, and the demigods seemed to catch on if the horrified expressions were anything to go by. "They'd die, and you wouldn't want to see your own children die, now would you?" The blade hummed a bit louder, and the blade pierced a bit deeper. Naruto gave himself a split second to glance at Hera, who was building up power. "Do not test me, goddess. I know what this cheater has done and how it can affect you, but I do not appreciate what you have done out of spite and I have qualms against you. However, this god takes precedent." Naruto refocused onto Zeus and did not release his attention again. He really did not want to do this, nor use the demigods as a crutch, but he also wanted to live. And he needed to talk and be able to talk in the first place to survive to see another day. This made him feel disgusting, but it was a necessity at this moment, especially with twelve Olympians, all most likely more powerful than he is.

"Brothers and sisters, why do you hesitate to deal with this threat? You know I will not die," Zeus suggested.

Hades, surprisingly, was the one to answer. "Oh, dear brother of mine, I do not mean this boy means any real harm against you. And besides, if his statement is true that you will need to use your true form to deal with the threat, the best option is to simply listen and possibly kill him after. Besides, when's the last time you actually listened, hmm?"

Zeus swore on the River Styx that he heard a mumble under Hades' breath the seemed to say 'it must've been millenniums.'

"I do believe he speaks for all of us when we do not attack first," Athena said after.

Hestia spoke after there was a round of nods. "Naruto, was it?" Said teen turned his head up, away from the neck of the stiffened god of sky and lightning and towards the owner of the soft voice that spoke his name. Meeting eyes with the inviting eyes of the child goddess, he showed no change in movement or expression, but simply remained his silent stillness as the two remained, capturing the other's eyes. "You mean no ill will, do you? I can see it...in your eyes. Go on, speak your mind. I'm sure it would do my brother some good. I promise to protect you."

Naruto's eyes widened and felt warmth spread through his body from the last words of promise. They had...no negativity attached to them. She meant it. Someone she had just met and was holding her brother at knife point to the neck was the very same person she promised to protect in case something happened to him. Naruto couldn't help but feel...almost understood, something that he had wished for and had obtained after so much work, and even then by so few people.

"Are you sure you aren't the leader of the gods?" he asked tepidly, far more respectful to Hestia than Zeus. Zeus grumbled at the indirect insult, but otherwise remained still.

Hestia shook her head in denial, but smiled nontheless. "No, I am but one of the supporting members of the gods here. However, I do have the power to protect you if I need to, young Naruto. But you should hurry on with chastising my brother, as he is short on patience, mind you," she advised, almost laughing at the end. Naruto nodded at this and heeded her advice.

"I will remain here, as it appears that any promise that you make to attack will be quickly broken. Do not make any sudden movements or threaten to attack either. I have killed and I have also fought against the one possessed by **Kronos** and won."

Surprised murmurs resounded in the room.

"It's true. He fought against **Kronos** and won, twice," Annabeth inputted.

"But wasn't the child of prophecy one of the children of the Big Three?" Artemis asked.

"No, Luke was the child of prophecy in the end and made the decision to protect the current reign of the gods rather than allow the titans of old to reconquer. I understood his decision and gave him his dagger so that he may commit suicide without impediment. He died a hero, and I do see why he would choose you over the titans. However...there is much to be desired from you all," Naruto muttered the last part, although it was silent enough so that every word was crystal clear.

"Hey, you look here, child - "

"Don't call me a child and tell me to 'look here'! You 'look here!' You let this all happen! This whole war was your fault to begin with, you idiots!" Naruto shouted angrily, caged fury now released lacing his tone as he shut down the god that spoke against him, much like he did against Zeus. "Want me to say it again? You're all wrong and _this is all of your fault_. You created your own enemy due to your own fallacies, which means you all are not perfect! Your failures as leaders resulted in this." Allowing to shock to sink in, Naruto lightened the chakra flow to his kunai and the wind blade no longer pierced Zeus' neck. "What was there to gain by not embracing your children and deciding to ignore them? And what's up with that whole idea of the children of the Big Three are too powerful and shoudn't be allowed any more, huh?"

"The children by the big three are usually very volatile and it is as you have said. They are volatile," Hephaestus spoke in his baritone, steady voice.

"Well, I'm not sure if you are looking at the same things as me, but those three look perfectly fine to me," Naruto retorted shortly, his eyebrows creasing and his canines becoming more pronounced. His tone was clear; he was not having it. No, if this was the best the gods were going to give to him, just excuses, and hardly acceptable ones at that, then he would rebuke them all until they would accept that pride was not worth the risk. "Percy, have you ever had thoughts of starting another world war?"

"Wha - No, what the heck, Naruto?" Percy blurted out, shook out his stupor by the immediate focus. He responded without even thinking. "Why would I ever want to kill millions?"

Naruto nodded. "Good. That's what decent parenting and guidance does. A proper appreciation for your fellow human being. And I don't know if any of you saw it, but I believe I saw Percy holding up the gigantic hand from the titan Typhon that threatened to end all of their lives. Or is that not a proper display and usage of power?"

"...It is," Zeus acquiesced, but not without lighting sparking from his arms. "But there is a history of - "

"A history, is there?!" Naruto shouted straight into Zeus' ear. "Oh, are we starting a history lesson? Let me tell you what I learned from the books I've read. Let's see here. Did you know that **Kronos** had many years of prosperity before it all went down to absolute shit? I'm sure you must know of this, as you know so much." Naruto couldn't help but let the sarcasm ooze like syrup. A _god_ was acting like an idiot. Any other god in his world, he would have been bowing and respecting, and they were absolute forces of nature that you obeyed. These gods were also forces of nature...but not so respectable, it seemed. And he faced against a self-proclaimed god before; he won. "And do you know what the trend of children that you have borne without any guidance was. They strayed from the path. What of the children that you had some kind of connection with or the ones that had decent friends and foster parents and proper guidance from other sources." Naruto eyed the three children of the Big Three. "They became wonderful children that fought on your side against the opposing force. I do not see any form of deliriousness in their choice. It should be ingrained for a child to protect their loving parents, is it not?"

"Yes, it is," Zeus said, stronger this time. Anger seemed to recede and a weak understanding appeared to replace the hot blood. A link was made. "I loved Hercules. I love Thalia." He added.

"Did you love Hercules or did you love his feats of power and heroism?"

Zeus felt fury course through him as his love was questioned for his own son and he roared "I loved my son! The fact he was great and accomplished what no other demigod could was a source of pride, but it did not change the fact I loved my child, nor any of my other children!"

"Then why not love them all the same and guide them? If you know how it feels to not be in contact with your child, why do you force other gods and goddesses, minor or no, to never be even claimed? You realize what this creates, right? A rift. A rift of misunderstanding. You wish to protect them, but the children feel hurt, and hurt leads to anger. Anger leads to action, and action caused by anger usually is not the proper decision. A mind clouded by hatred and rage does not often pick the same decision a level headed person would make," Naruto said knowingly, thinking offhandedly of when he was overtaken by the **Kyuubi**. "You wish to protect them, but you give them hardly anything to protect themselves with, and no love that they can feel, see, touch, smell, or hear. In the end, all there is left is a lack of love, indifference, and the rift that caused this war. And with no changes, another war will occur in the future. So when I say, you are wrong, I mean it."

Naruto lowered his blade and jumped away from the throne of Zeus, standing where he was before, in the center of the throne room.

"You were wrong. We do not listen to only power; that is a tyranny, something **Kronos** had at the end of his reign. The reason why you are the leader of the gods cannot be only because you are the strongest; there must be something else or another reason why. I listen to wisdom and proper guidance and there needs to be more of that in the world..." He looked over to Hestia, who sent him a beaming smile. Hopefully, he made the right choice and it impacted the gods and their future. He turned away and began to walk away from the throne room. When no one spoke out against him or stopped his leave, Naruto made his way to the exit and all they saw his back receding into the distance towards the elevator.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Time Skip: Thirty Minutes)**

Naruto should've expected it. The elevator was locked, and no amount of pressing on the button that lit up made any difference. He cursed as he reflected on what he had done in his prompted anger. He did not feel that he was wrong in any way, but he definitely could have handled that better. He already revealed so much to the gods by sticking onto the thrones with just his shoes and his wind blade.

What would happen now? He slid against the wall next to the elevator and sat down. He groaned and palmed his face with both hands and sat there for a few minutes, lost in thought and looking into darkness. A familiar giggle resounded and he opened his eyes. The laughter was right next to him, so whoever it was had managed to enter his private area without him being aware of it. It meant either power or he was losing it. He wasn't sure exactly what he preferred in that scenario.

"Would you like some food?" Hestia asked kindly, sitting down next to the much larger Naruto. Naruto grinned and nodded honestly, and was immediately overwhelmed by the course of food that magically appeared. There was even ramen!

"Yatta!" he shouted and grabbed the bowl holding the food of the gods...err...actually, since she made it appear, then it actually must be the food of the gods! Haha, he was right all along! Take that, sinners that spoke ill of ramen! He now had the proof he required to convince all that ramen was truly what the gods ate.

Hestia laughed as Naruto, who was so stern and stiff in the throne room, was so visibly relaxed and happy as he ate next to her. He talked a bit about how ramen was his favorite food of all, and how his favorite place to eat was a ramen stand that was small but growing in popularity. He proudly told her that he was their favorite customer and would continue to do so if he could be, but circumstances made it difficult for him to do so. She was unsure whether he was insinuating whether it was because he was poor or from another dimension, but she was rather convinced with herself it was the latter. People with his set of skills were rarely poor, unless his world was so different in her mind that he was considered weak. If that were the case, it was with a shudder that she would take it seriously. However, she would wait for him to speak about it.

"You don't need to act as if the food will disappear. I have willed it to come, and I can always create more, you know?" she told him assuredly. Naruto slowed down slightly, but only slightly. The food continued to disappear into the black hole that was his mouth, and the gravitational pull for good food was simply too strong for the ravenous blond. He had been eating whatever the campers had given for the past few days, and the rebuilding of Konoha had hardly allowed him to eat anything of any substantial good. There was hardly a moment to actually sit around and eat or relax, and here he was, a full course meal offered to him for free - wait...for free? He looked at Hestia from the corner of his eyes while continuing to eat, grabbing for one of the sandwiches with thick maple bacon, chopped lettuce, sliced cured ham, fresh tomatoes and a sauce to top it off with the crackling sourdough bread. It was a simple sandwich, but it made his eyes flutter in gushy happiness and glee. Good food was indeed wonderful.

"You're wondering what is the reason for all this?" Naruto's eyes widened when she asked this, as if she were able to read his thought. She laughed without any restraint. Then, she placed her cheek on her palm, her elbow against her knees. "I suppose I am thanking you, Naruto."

Thanking him? He had placed a knife at her brother's neck, prepared to slice through the jugular and, if need be, through his whole neck. He would not be very thankful if he had a sister that he loved and someone did that to her. But he continued to eat and chew, and she continued to talk.

"There aren't many people that would speak out against my brother, and even less that he would listen to. Unwilling, you may have made him listen, but he did not only listen, he _took it in_. That is not common. What you have done is momentous from any person, may it be human, demigod, monster, or a higher being. And even better was that you made him listen to something that made sense. You gave him a piece of your mind, and he accepted it and took it into consideration. It doesn't have to be today that he suddenly changes; we do live long lives and gods, after all. However, what you have done may have been the drop that created a ripple to change everything. So for that, I thank you. And I still promise to protect you if any ill will or wrath comes charging your way that you cannot handle, although I do believe those would be far and few in between," she admitted with another gust of laughter. Naruto found himself laughing beside her, his hand scratching the back of his head. There was something about the goddess of the hearth that he couldn't help but be drawn in and feel connected and understood. Is this...how others felt around him when they described his persona. A warmth like this?

"I...I appreciate your promise, and I'm sure that there is no falsehood in your promises, goddess of the hearth." A lift of the grin, and then "Hestia" was all. "Hestia," he said, replacing her title. Her grin widened, and so did his. "I only did what I felt was right, I guess. And someone had to say it, right?"

She smiled so happily and proudly at his innocence and proper righteousness that Naruto felt overwhelmed by the...love on her face. Was it love? What was that emotion...he couldn't decipher it. Pride, but for what reason? Understanding? Could she understand him?

"Naruto, you're a wonderful young man. It is amazing that you are the person that you are, and I am so glad to know there are still people like you that speak their mind and are on the path of what is right. You spread around positivity and correct those around you without breathing down their necks. You are powerful and use this power for good and to protect, and you do not hesitate to help or protect at a moment's notice. I have watched, and I have been correct in my assumptions. You are a good person, and I believe this even more now that I have seen you in person. There are so few in the world that are as innocently proper and yet naive. But we need more people in this world like you. Naive but charismatic, and ones that haven't let the world's negativity affect them despite the complete power it has to do so."

Naruto was certain now. He was definitely overwhelmed and didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. He sat in silence and looked away and straight forward where the throne room was. Hestia continued to look at the blond and saw the young mang's cheek redden. She giggled and pointed at the food.

"Weren't you going to finish that?"

 _'Right. I was totally eating.'_

So they sat in comfortable silence, one eating and the other procuring drinks whenever she felt necessary.

A few minutes later, a rumble of noise coming from the throne room made itself known. Naruto looked up and saw all of the campers coming in their direction. Percy and Annabeth ran over to him, relief clearly expressed in their action and faces.

"You, Mr. Naruto Uzumaki, are so stupid." Naruto chose to laugh at the insult Annabeth threw at him.

"You're just too smart, Ms. Annabeth Chase," he retorted without a pause. He knew how to play the game.

Percy clapped a hand on his shoulder and grinned earnestly. "Hey, just glad you're alive, unlike this girl here." He got a punch in the shoulder, but he rolled it off and kept up his smile. "It seemed like Zeus really took what you said, man. He didn't talk much after and the other gods had to speak on his behalf. It was kinda weird, but mostly cool. So good job, dude! But at the end, he said that he wanted you to come back to the throne room before we all left. Said something about the elevator was locked by his command so that you'd be stuck here."

Naruto took the hand on his shoulder and gripped it. Percy quickly pulled the teen up and the two were at eye level.

"Hopefully he wasn't contemplating how to kill me in his eerie silence," Naruto joked.

"Too soon," Percy complained, but it didn't stop the quick chuckle that escaped his lungs. "Promise not to die on me?"

"Yea, I promise. I didn't wan to ruin this place, so I decided to stay inside anyway. Glad I did. I got all of this food!" Naruto pointed out cheerfully, waving his hand across the display of plates and bowls on the floor, and also crossing Hestia. Percy and Annabeth opened their mouths in shock and immediately bowed.

"Lady Hestia!" Both said in unison. The goddess gave the two a grin and a disarming wave of the hand. The two demigods stood up far more relaxed, though both seemed wary. "I apologize for not noticing you earlier," Annabeth said, speaking for the both of them. She tended to be better in these kinds of scenarios. Percy may be good at the heart to hearts, but leave the professional, formal talks to Annabeth. They learned this the hard way...multiple times.

"Do not worry, children. Would you like some food while you wait? After all, I doubt that my brother would allow you to leave before Naruto leaves."

"We would be very thankful, Lady Hestia."

A moment later, a far larger pool of food enough for all of the demigods came into existence. "Enjoy," she told them. And so the demigods dug in, rushing for the food to slake their gnawing stomachs. Percy and Annabeth remained standing, stationed a bit away from the food and remained next to their newest companion. Before Hestia led Naruto towards the throne room, Percy gave him a firm handshake and Annabeth gave the blond a quick hug before parting ways for good luck. They reminded him that they had yet to show him around Camp Half Blood, so he had to live. A few demigods gave him a glance up away from their food, and all of them were filled respect, even the ones that were of the opposing camp originally. He still wasn't sure how to deal with the looks, so he faced forwards and entered the throne room without looking back. Soon, he was at the center of the throne room again with the door closed behind him, and only the audience of the gods. Where had all the cyclops and monsters gone, he had no idea. But it didn't matter.

"So...are you going to go all true form god mode on me?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence that was starting to itch his nerves. Zeus sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He was hoping the silence would break the teenager, but it seemed that he was wrong for thinking so. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about the whole threatening thing. I just wanted to stay alive and...ya' know...not die before my point got across."

A few of the gods in audience chuckled. Others didn't find it so humorous. Luckily, Poseidon and Hades seemed to be one of the few that laughed, one slapping his knee and the other silently behind a pale hand. Zeus took notice of his brothers and sighed; they were never going to let him forget about this day.

"Apology accepted and point taken. And no, as much as I'd like to use my true form and have it over with, we, as one, have all decided on different solution," Zeus confessed. "One possibility in which you live rather healthily."

"And the other possibility?" Naruto asked, wanting to know all of his options. Hades narrowed his eyes, but inwardly applauded the wits on the child. The boy was smarter than he looked by a fair margin.

Zeus leaned forwards and spoke again, "We have accepted the terms for Percy's wish and claimed our children. All of them. However, that leaves many vulnerable, and it will take quite a while for us to actually communicate with the children. It is also difficult to promise their safety now that they know of their godly parent. Monsters will be on their tail and their scent is only masked in few scenarios."

"You want me to search for these children of yours and bring them to a safe haven," Naruto stated, his arms crossed and his eyes serious. "I can do that."

There was a momentary silence, and Naruto felt awkwardness prickle his skin. He was wrong, wasn't he.

"As much as we are sure of your skill to do that and perform admirably, we have decided on a different solution," Hades spoke. "One that would match your ability to convince and lead, as well as your needed strength and power to persuade and remain alive."

"You have helped my son very much and the rest of the campers, from what we have been told. I also agree that this task suits you much better," Poseidon added.

Naruto raised his eyebrow and dropped his arms to his side. He had no idea what they were insinuating. At least he knew he wasn't going to die...yet.

"We will provide the money and drachma you need to survive in the world. We only ask that you travel to the camp of the Roman demigods and explain to them that this whole claiming incident was not a mistake."

"Ah..."

"I also have another child name Jason Grace, who is the son of my Roman counterpart."

"What..."

"I believe that the increasing intervention between the gods and the demigods are causing the rise of Gaea and the Giants, another powerful force to be reckoned with. So I will be closing off Olympus after this."

"..." Naruto chose to remain silent, and simply stared at the head of the gods with a blank stare. The other gods seemed to be doing the exact same thing. At first, it seemed as if the king of the gods had turned a new leaf; how wrong he was to assume so quickly. But what was the purpose of all this.

"But you seem...eerily familiar to the earth. You have something inside of you that reminds of Gaea, and that is not a good thing, Naruto Uzumaki. You are attuned to nature similar to Pan, and yet have a power inside far more deep and resounding, crashing at the gates of your exits to release their power. Whatever it is, it is similar to a sinister force that I do not like, and I would prefer if you did not use that power. You may chalk this up to paranoia, but I do believe I understand what I am speaking about. Gaea is awakening, and there have been signs."

"Brother, you are speaking too much. Besides, this is all interpretation; you have no proof," Poseidon said tiredly. He had a home to go to and clean up and rebuild after this whole counsel.

"Interpretation is up to each viewer, and there is no wrong with being too safe," Zeus justified. Naruto could understand that, but he disagreed. "Also, I wish to hear what this child has to say; perhaps he has his own perspective, after all." It was then that Naruto realized that Zeus did not speak a demeaning manner. He seemed to genuinely want to know Naruto's opinion...almost as an equal.

"You know what happens to nations that close themselves off and refuse to trade, correct?" He asked the god of lightning. A nod in return. "They are eventually forced to reenter into world trade or fall behind."

"We can risk those few years of falling behind if we play it safe."

"Playing it safe is fine, but again, one roused awake after a long sleep does not tend to go back to sleep. If it were a short nap, then perhaps, but a slumber usually means a wide awake individual."

"So you are telling me to keep open the connection between the Olympus and the demigods, and to take my chances?" Zeus asked, leaning forward in his gigantic chair.

"Yes and no. I'm asking you to prepare for war if it is a possibility and unify the forces you can possibly amass against the giants and Gaea or whatever foe you end up facing in the future, near or far. Have countermeasures if Gaea does end up awakening, or against any foe. Being safe is the name of the game, as you wished."

"But what of the claims that the new Oracle just prophesied?" Hera finally said, speaking her piece. "Did she not say that 'a storm or fire, the world must fall'? Does that not imply that Gaea would awaken?"

Naruto deadpanned at the goddess. "No, that just means a storm or fire will cause the world to fall. Besides, aren't prophecies fickle things that people can interpret totally incorrectly in the beginning and screw up?" He added, staring directly at the wife of Zeus with a questionable look. Something wasn't adding up...

Hera snarled at him and he almost jumped backwards, holding down the instinct to pull out a kunai and launch it at her direction. "You know nothing, boy!" she claimed.

"And you will not speak against him like that in my presence. I have decided to make him my representative," Hestia warned and informed the other Olympians. All were shocked, and their flabbergasted expressions almost made Naruto laugh, if not for the severity of the current situation. Here he was, supposed to be celebrating the end of a war. Instead, he threatens the king of the gods and doesn't die for it, talks to a child goddess who is also the Virgin goddess and ends up becoming her representative without even being a demigod, and for some reason, Hera was staring poison into him and a few other gods were looking at him funny. He just wanted to go home. So badly.

But was there any way to get home? Perhaps a seal...no way, he had hardly a lick of knowledge when it came to seals, and it was definitely not the time to practice by self learning. It was possible that due to his Uzumaki blood that he would be able to pick up seals quickly, but no teacher severely limited his learning curve, and Jiraiya also told him that a single mistake could end his life, or worse. He didn't like the sound of that, so he ended up never really trying an practicing wholeheartedly on his ninjutsu and taijutsu. A shame, since now would really be a great moment have even a basic understanding of space time techniques or seals that would make it so much easier for him to accept his fate or fight against him. The worst thing about his situation was that he had no real idea whether he'd be able to go home and what his chances were...scary how knowledge was like that.

"You made him your champion?" Artemis questioned, her eyes boring into the skull of Naruto. He looked in her direction and met her gaze. "I do not see what you see in him, but I will not question any further."

"And that is all I ask. That you accept my decision and leave it be. Although he is not my champion, but simply a representative of me. Perhaps if he proves himself more, then I will gift him the position of champion, but that will be quite a while, young Naruto. Don't let it get to your head now, won't you?" she asked, almost childishly at the blond. Naruto turned his attention to Hestia and nodded solemnly. He would do his best to keep her trust. She gave him hers, and had provided for him food and protection, something that he can cherish and return with his own abilities and loyalty. Only time would tell if she truly deserved it, but as of so far in this world, she was the only goddess that he would listen to without much hesitation and trust. It was shallow waters for the two of them.

He returned his focus to Zeus and saw the bearded god sitting idly, the god's legs crossed and his chin on his closed fist in a relaxes posture. "Are you done? If so, I'd like to tell you what I've decided." Naruto showed he understood, so Zeus continued. "I will have you go to the Roman camp as the champion - ah - the representative of Hestia, and you will be in their presence until we signal you that it is enough. Until then, you are free to do as you wish with your life and the unlimited money that we provide you. I order you to not sully our names and our faith in you, and I hope that with this step, we do enough to allow a bit of faith in us from your person."

Naruto, if he was shocked, did not show it visibly. Zeus was far more reasonable than he had anticipated. But he was glad of that, as a matter of that. A reasonable anybody was far more preferable to an unreasonable person any day of the week, any week of the year, and in any lifetime, thank you very much. He had dealt with plenty of unreasonable people and showed them that they were biased or unreasonable, or wrong, or misguided, Pein being the most recent victim of his converting speeches, but also the most difficult. The worst part about it was that...Pein wasn't all that unjustified. He was wrong, certainly, but it was through his own life experiences and pain that he became the way he did. He was his own polar opposite, and possibly who he could have been. Frightening, truly.

The others, Neji, Gaara, and a few others...they were actually easier to talk to. They had their unreasonableness or contradictions far more visible to the eye and therefore, easier to point out. Although it took time and a bit of beating to convince them that they were wrong, he eventually did so. It really sucks that he couldn't understand Sasuke at the Valley of the End...he understood him now, but he couldn't understand him before. If he ever met him again, he'd have to try again to understand him while fighting him, it seemed, and convince him through beating him that he was wrong.

Despite all of his thoughts and complicated emotions, Naruto opted to quietly nod and affirm that he was willing to take on the task. It didn't seem to bad of a mission while searching for a possibility back home. All he had to do was convince a bunch of people that everything was fine and dandy, look decent as the representative of one of the major gods without marring their name and his own, whilst in contact with the gods and hopefully Camp Half Blood. It honestly sounded pretty easy of a mission to him.

And unlimited money sounded wonderful.

 **Chapter End.**

 **A/N: Alright, I'm going to be honest. There's this one review that fucked with me on one of my other stories that's really recent. I'm going to quote it here.** **"Do you actually expect anyone sane to continue reading this story past Ch. 01? Naruto is a complete mental midget, and even any mere insinuation of hidden brilliance is smothered by further retardation. If it isn't for the fact that this story has nine chapters under its belt, I would immediately drop it like a plague."**

 **No. I don't even want to go into how bad of a review this is. This isn't criticism. And the person told me that this is also not flaming. My best efforts? Naw, shit dude. I'm only reading it because there's more. Honestly, seriously...just fuck the fuck off. I'm so sorry for bringing this up again, but honest to God, this made me write this chapter. It was really weird, but I read it, got out of bed, and wrote for four hours straight. Honestly, I don't think I'm the most thin-skinned individual, and I can brush off things easily. But I fucking despise people that put others down when they put their effort in. It's easy to say hey, I don't care. But there are just some people that dig you wrong, just so wrong. And you ask, why do you keep spreading your negativity? I don't think the answer is to ignore them always, but I tend to say 'fuck negativity, I don't want it in my life.' This is honestly one of those times I don't even want to see this person in my reviews or in my life again. Toxic, rude, and calling the rest of my followers to my story not sane is dog shit attitude and personality. If he can call out over 1,100 followers (not including even readers), I'm sure I can call out a single person.**

 **That being said, be positive. Criticize, but don't over-critique yourself. It's necessary to know what you are doing well while you work on improving yourself. And improving takes time. It took me a long time to get good at the things I wanted to become good at, and even then, I don't consider myself 'good' at what others consider me to be proficient at. It's a weird cycle, and it helps to have confidence. Be confident in yourself, but don't be cocky.**

 **Sorry for the life lesson. Hope you're getting my vibe. Reading the review again and the PM just made me pissed off more than I have in any game of League of Legends.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the story!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **X-Ownz: Lol, yes. Doctor said that Luke is dead. What a shame.**

 **Frankieu: Thank you. I did my best haha.**

 **Ultima-Owner: I would agree. Shikamaru is a great example of smarts.**

 **Grimreaper40045: There's an interesting stigma about Zeus. He is paranoid, but he had a reason to be paranoid in the books. And the worst part was that his fellow olympians didn't really believe him. So...kinda weird dilemma there.**

 **Guardian of the Inheritance: haha thanks. Just let me know when it's up to par with Storm King.**

 **Train Hearnett: Talk no Jutsu is OP, but there is thought behind it, surprisingly.**

 **Engulfing Darkness: To be honest, I'm kind of just riding the wave and letting things go as they go. I think I'll have to read a bit before continuing the story any further from here, to be honest. Forgot a loooot of the second series.**

 **TBM10: Kam samnida (Thank you in Korean).**

 **Cookie16Monster: Darn, I didn't edit well enough for the grammatical errors. Thank you for reading up to this point :D**

 **MohammedOssama999: Woah...one of your favorites. There's a lot of stories out there that are really great, so that's awesome to hear! And who knows, man. This story has a lot of paths it can go down :D**

 **Ultracohls: Thanks man, as always! It's a pity, but yea, it had to happen. Prophecies are meant to be followed in these stories.**

 **TypedSomeWords: I don't know how to respond to the first portion because...I'm not too well versed on power levels. But the second one, I can only assume they don't fight at full god form simply for the sake of the demigods and the possible stray mortal that will be a casualty. Otherwise, I don't really know. Empathy is underrated in a lot of stories, but very much well rated in real life. Kind of strange, that is. And yea, sorry Annabeth. If you think this story has a lot going for it, I hope that I can keep it up! That makes me really happy to hear and want to write it more, ya know?**

 **Max Moreno: o.O Naruto currently doesn't have power over Kyuubi Six Sage Paths mode, so that's an impossibility. But hopefully this ending was fine.**

 **TheSilentFan: Dang, he felt like canon version? That is a huge compliment. To create Naruto like Naruto, and not like someone else. And yea, Hestia is an amazing Olympian. Love her!**

 **GuardianoftheUniverse: Updated! Thanks for reading, yo!**

 **Doomqwer: Naruto does not agree, as he definitely has his qualms against the gods. But he also believes that the gods were the lesser of two evils.**

 **Tal House: Oh...that grammar error hurt my eyes. And thank you for the review and the happy disposition. Felt awesome to read the review, to be honest. Also, nice picture.**

 **Fuyuriku: You are very welcome for the read.**

 **Dino aids: Woah...that's a compliment I honestly rarely see...in any fiction. A true portrayal of Naruto is really hard and difficult to balance.**

 **Drael95: Thank you!**

 **Bladetri: xD Liked back**

 **The Sorrowful Deity: It did, just a little bit. Kronos was forced to listen, so in his last moment, he listened to Naruto without fighting back. And in the end, he let Luke take over.**

 **Djberneman: I could've wrote it better in the last chapter, but yes, Naruto got to Kronos as well as Luke. And you're correct.**

 **Animelover1818: I don't think I can exactly do that, but there are other surprises hopefully available for the story. You can also write your own with that idea!**

 **He who seeks the Joys in Life: Yea Luke was never evil, but more misguided. He was misunderstood and couldn't be convinced, but he ended his life as a hero, and was remembered as a hero. Hestia is an amazing Olympian, and Zeus is...meh. Even in the books. But he's alright, not terrible.**

 **Jgs237: Thanks for the review and yeet! Bonding is difficult, man. It was so hard to write. And I'll attempt to keep this up!**

 **Guest: I will try to continue for as long as I have the drive to write!**

 **Guest: It's a possibility, but it's yet to go in any direction. I'm not sure what pairing I want for sure, to be honest.**

 **Aqua-Sensei: Seriously, you're one of my favorite reviews to read. Clear and easy to read, and also makes me feel better to know I'm doing something right. Thanks so much for the review and I hope to keep up with everything else!**

 **jjjj: ...okay I'm not going to respond to this or any of the other power level stuff. Sorry, not exactly my forte.**

 **KaberuPB: Yeah, I don't want Naruto to be too overpowered. He's certainly very, very strong right now, but he's not powerful to the point he can destroy a major god at his whim. Pairing is difficult man, and both are very viable options. But this chapter opened up a lot more opportunities, no?**

 **tired of living: thanks, man!**

 **Red Renegade 777: Sage Mode is honestly an amazing power up. I prefer it over the first Kyuubi cloak, and actually over any Kyuubi cloak other than when Kurama and Naruto worked together. And I really appreciate that you liked the different end for Luke. It was difficult to figure out that ending and decide on it, so I'm glad that route was liked!**


	8. A New Face

**A/N: Hope you all enjoy!**

 **Chapter 8: A New Face**

He was intrigued, eyeing the frozen treat with hunger that reflected in his eyes. It was a hot day, and the cold item currently handled in his grip was perfect to contrast against the summer heat.

"Just eat the ice cream, Naruto."

Said teen turned to the ash-eyed genius, who he deemed the Shikamaru of the group. Annabeth was comfortably leaning back with her left arm to support her, her legs swinging in the air freely. The tension - much too heavy to bear - that was normally ingrained in her shoulders, was dissipating slowly over the past few days. Her eyes spoke of a much relieved sentiment.

The two were on top of a skyscraper, casually sitting at the edge with not a care in the world. Annabeth had some precautions about this position originally, but a quick reminder that Naruto could casually walk on walls dispelled her worries.

Naruto gave his dessert a bite and hummed in appreciation. _'Not bad.'_

"It's pretty good, right?"

"It's trash," Naruto told her with a smile. Annabeth nearly spit out - correction: she did empty out whatever was currently in her mouth - the ice cream and laughed before giggling almost uncontrollably. He joined in her laughter, the lightened mood fitting well with the lazy haze that had covered over New York.

Lazy wasn't exactly the right word, but something seemed to be different about the city ever since the attack. People weren't so aggressive in their gait as they were the day before. Perhaps the effects from Morpheus were still there.

"It's because it's the weekend," Annabeth pointed observably. Naruto shifted his eyes over to where she sat and raised a single eyebrow. "What? You're looking down at the crowd and based on the fact you like information gathering, it's the closest thing I could think of," she reasoned.

"Maybe I was just thinking of pineapples," he retorted, adding on a magnificent flourish with his hand before snorting in amusement.

Another giggle and then a punch in the arm from the girl. She was...incredibly comfortable around him, despite how little time they had actually spent together in their lives. And Naruto felt similarly to how she felt. Maybe it was because she reminded him of an old friend.

He frowned. Shikamaru and Annabeth were different. Konoha and New York were not the same. Earth and the Elemental Nations...were nothing alike. And yet here he was, still grasping at straws. The closest thing to home was Japan, but that was on the other side of the world, and from what he'd been told, it wasn't particularly easy to travel across the ocean without some kind of identification.

Something he couldn't easily procure.

Annabeth swallowed another bite of her food and let her gray eyes crinkle in comfort. "You seem a lot more comfortable now," she noted. He turned to her and caught her smiling. Not one of the forced smiles he felt originally. Genuine. Real. Comfortable. He wondered...when was the last time she smiled like this. A warm fire started in his stomach. He wanted to protect that smile. "You were...so tense when I first met you."

"Same to you," Naruto replied in quick turn. He shrugged shortly after. "But now, you also make it seem as if we've known each other for years." His grin grew wider, and his was so readable that it was practically spilling _'Not that I mind, though'_.

The leader of the Athena cabin took a moment to think about that. Her eyes seemed to roam the skyline for something before finding nothing but the sunset as a small zephyr crossed her figure. It was getting a bit cooler outside. A jacket would have been nice, but the cool weather was unexpected due to the fact it was summer.

Shame...

Annabeth took a deep breath of the Manhattan air, free of **Kronos** and all tension. "I find it weird myself that I catch myself completely comfortable in your presence, especially since it's the two of us. There are not any gods I know that have that power. A god of comfort usually implies something else. You're just..."

"Incredible?" Naruto finished for her. She chuckled good-naturedly in response.

"A good person," she corrected. "But I suppose besting 'him' in single combat is considered incredible. Godly, almost." A hint thrown out there. She knew it was dangerous to say something like that, but some things just weren't adding up to her. So she thought if ever, now would be a good time to bring it up.

There was another comfortable pause. A bird called for her mother, and there was another call within the break. "We've fought in a war together and you were on our side without question. I don't know. I just don't _feel_ like I there's any reason to be wary about you. It's hard _not_ to trust someone that's on our side like that. But..."

Naruto knew where this was heading and decided to stop it before it got too far in any direction. He shook his head, and Annabeth stopped before she could explain herself and her theories. "I told you before, and I'm going to say it again: I'm not a god." When a pair of eyes narrowed owlishly, he frowned. "Really, I am not a god. As flattering is that is to hear, especially since I've got to meet some, I am not in any way, shape, or form, a god. I'm a ninja from another world..." He was on the receiving end of an unblinking stare. "...and as hard as it is to believe that - trust me, I know..." The blond looked down into his open palm and gripped it as determination flashed across his face, painted with strength and resolve. " - but all I am is a powerful ally, and a protector of friends. And you - " he took this time to swivel his head to face her fully. " - are a friend of mine," he told her.

What was she to say to something that? She couldn't. Friends? With someone that had literally bested **Kronos** in single combat? It sounded _ridiculous_ for an idea. It sounded even crazier to tell herself that it was true. Her _friend_ was a ninja from another world. It would be so much easier to just say that he was a foreign deity that was much more powerful than her gods, but that would be another huge bag of issues that she would be afraid of opening. That thought was terrifying, but dimensional travel was also quite...terrifying, but it came with some kind of excitement from the unknown.

But...wasn't that exactly was it was? Truth? Oh gods, she was going to short circuit.

Before she could take her thoughts too deep, a calming, soothing hand placed itself on her shoulder. Her breaths, which she didn't notice to have accelerated, began to slow and normalize. She faced away from the skyline and back to her _friend_...just a friend. Not a god...against all of what Naruto stated saying that he wasn't in any way godly, he was seemingly able to read her mind. Seriously...it would be so much more plausible to just say he was a god.

"Stop that. You're just easy to read right now. I'm just really good at what I do." And he didn't doubt it for a second. His whole life trained him to be able to read the most minute details, from breathing patterns to muscle movement. Any kind of tell was information, and information was king in his line of work. His palm lightly pressed into her shoulder, and she leaned into his hand. "To me, you're a friend, Annabeth. Try not to read into it too much, yeah? It's kind of common to me to just...make friends rather quickly."

She closed her eyes and thought about it for a second before murmuring in a much lower decibel, "So all of your friends are ones you make quickly."

"Or unexpectedly."

She opened her eyes and Naruto let go of her shoulder. "Sounds about right." She absentmindedly took another bite from the pastry and shivered when another wind went by.

"If it's easier, just think of me as someone trained from this world's Japan and move on, yeah?"

Annabeth deftly moved a bang out of her eye and muttered, "Sure...I'll do that."

No conversation passed between the two for what seemed to be at least ten minutes. They simply chose to remain silent and let their silence to do the talking for them. And as expected, nothing about it seemed forced. It was nice and quiet, something Naruto wished he could apply to silence in general. Difficult when silence tended to apply itself to loneliness or danger.

Before long, a break from the quiet and lull from Manhattan came in the form of voices approaching behind the pair. A door creaked open and multiple footsteps tapped across the floor.

"Ah, you guys got your food quickly!" Percy chirped loudly. Suddenly, he burped viciously, smiling quickly after with no signs of embarrassment. "It was the root beer." Annabeth slapped a palm to her face and scraped it down in embarrassment for the teen that had just sat beside her. "I hope you weren't waiting for too long." Naruto shook his head and signed him with a thumbs up. _'It's all good.'_ Percy returned with his own thumbs up and and was soon onto his pizza, cheesy and hot and in all of its glory. A few seconds later, he was biting into it with bliss cast over his expressions.

Thalia and Grover were soon sat as well, laughing at Percy's epic burp. Grover chose to sit next to Percy, whereas Thalia put herself besides Naruto. Thalia saw the ice cream and looked to Naruto.

"I ate food before coming up here," Naruto told her. Thalia made a face that showed she understood. "Nice...dish you got there?"

Lightning's best friend had no amount of impressed or surprise. Rather, she just seemed rather neutral about this all.

"It's a cookie."

Two eyebrows raised in bewilderment. "A what?"

"Exactly," Thalia said in finality. Full of confidence, she pushed on forth. "It's a 'what'."

Naruto's eyebrows were now receding into his hairline. "...What?" Naruto let out, right when Percy and Grover thought they couldn't take it any more. Soon, the boys were clutching their stomachs at the ninja's expense. They weren't even sure why it was so funny. Maybe it was because they had just escaped from a gigantic _crisis_ that had been threatening them for years and now any kind of comedy or poor slapstick jokes were infinitely more funny. Who was to say?

Naruto looked between the two parties and growled sarcastically. Percy faked a stabbing to his heart and groaned, falling over to Grover and latching onto the satyr's shoulder as the two howled louder than before, shaking uncontrollably.

"Oh, hahaha! - you - HA! - you wound me, Naruto! H-h-h-how could you direct so much hostility towards me!" Percy swooned, his left arm over his eyes. Suddenly, he flicked water droplets he had conjured from the air at Naruto, who sputtered and yelled in response.

"Ass," he quipped.

"Right. I missed and should've aimed for that instead," was the equally witty report.

Naruto growled again, a red glow rising to his cheeks. "That is _not_ what I meant, but alright-y then." Abruptly, the blond stood up, his ice cream finished. He patted his clothes down and expertly threw the container for the frozen dessert into the trash can with a resounding _thunk_. "I think I'm going to head out. What are the you guys going to do?" he questioned, his hands on his lower back as he stretched them. The other on the ledge were oddly interested when the blond's lumbar popped loudly enough for them to hear.

But then, the question that all of them were thinking was vocalized.

"You're leaving?" Percy asked. "If it's about the water, sorry man. I'll get another ice cream." It was clear it was a joke, but there was obvious bewilderment in both the tone and body.

"I thought you would come see our Camp first. I know it's half-bloods only, but I think they'd let you pass in through the barrier," Annabeth blurted out quickly, almost desperately. Subconsciously, she felt that she wouldn't see him...not for a while. And she would miss the enigmatic blond that had stormed into their lives. There was so much more she wanted to know about him and about his life. Things she wanted to ask and understand...there were still too many blanks and it made her uncomfortable, and the prospect that he was going to leave made her suddenly wish she had prodded him more with questions like a hot stick to campfire wood.

Naruto scratched his cheek and feigned to smile, but it was weak. Annabeth crossed her arms underneath her unassuming bust, ice cream gone. "You can't come, can you? Let me guess, the gods gave you a mission and you have to start right now."

Naruto wasn't even remotely surprised that she had it right in one go. For her correct conjecture, he decided to humor her...and as a friend. "Something like that, yeah. They didn't say 'right now', but it was let in the air - pun intended, by the way - how soon I'd have to begin." The cerulean eyes hardened, as did his posture. He gave the four others a nod and an honest smile that reached the window of his soul. Stepping over the ledge, he turned to face the Greek demigods as he let gravity pull him down towards the streets. "See you guys!" he promised, casually saluting as fell off the building.

"He disappeared in leaves," Grover murmured. The satyr leaned back and sighed. "And here, I was hoping that I could have him meet the council and show that he was a Sage. Can you imagine how ballistic the elders would be?" There was an obvious malicious glint shining brighter than the sun in those eyes, but underneath that gaze was a barely perceivable emotion called disappointment. All four in the group had the same sentiment it seemed, as the New York air suddenly seemed much colder, and the weather much less orange with warmth. It transitioned into purple, and was soon to be a glowing blue with wisps of rainbow on the edge, but mainly dark and cold.

Soon, the rooftop was empty. The three demigods plus satyr were gone, deciding that they had eaten and rested for long enough and that it was time to move on.

On the way back to Camp Half Blood, Annabeth was down in the Earth's core in thought, and was quite unbreakable in her spell.

 _"Uh...you realize each of us have our own missions, right? It's not like we get that much of a break, and summer is ending." Percy placed his hand over Annabeth's. She made no move to remove his - something he noticed with short relief. He looked over to the sunset and melancholic emptiness filled him, like an ocean filling an overflowing jar._

 _'He had a mission given by the gods and he couldn't tell us...he's in direct contact with at least one of the gods!'_ She came to the realization and her spell of concentration broke like glass that was professionally made to shatter for the effects. Looking around, she saw her beloved camp in the distance, about five minutes away at the rate they were closing in. Looking over at her crush, Annabeth noted Percy was looking up to the sky with a rare intonation of focus.

She would think more on this puzzle named Naruto later.

 _'I might as well enjoy what time I have left. After all...our summers' are almost over.'_

Three hours later, she kissed Percy and they were an official item.

 **XShuyaX**

 **(Time Skip: Noon the Next Day)**

Naruto had to admit: planes were a lot more dull than he had expected them to be. Don't get him wrong, though. It was still quite an experience to take off and feel the vertigo, but once the flying transportation had leveled off and eased up, it was rather comfortable and rather...boring. However, the gods had given him what this world had dubbed 'private plane', something worth thousands of dollars to obtain, and he milked it as much as he could. Free food, delicacies, whatever drinks he could order off the menu; it was all his, and he was glad to abuse the system.

He was on his most recent order of a pastrami sandwich that was steamed and served with thick slices and sourdough bread. It literally melted in his mouth in flavor, and Naruto had to admit...it was almost as good as ramen. A non-soup based dish was closing in on his favorite meal, and he was afraid to admit what the ramifications of that admittance would be. But for now, he would let it be.

There was a signal that the plane would land soon, so the blond took it upon himself to order one more meal for the road.

Soon enough, he was lugging his baggage of clothes in a suitcase through all security, while all of his metallic items were in a seal tapped in his wrist. _'I suppose that's one more thing to be thankful for.'_ The security in the real world was far worse than in his old world and in the world of demigods. Admittedly, if one were skilled enough, he could simply ignore all security and sneak through all groping eyes, much like his godfather was able to do. However, the general guard was so poorly trained compared to Konoha that Naruto hardly needed to even think or use any of his habits on subtlety and sneaking to pass through possibly every security check in the world.

One call and hail for a cab later, Naruto was soon looking into an open door of a limo with an occupant already inside.

"Lady Hestia," he breathed out, awe slightly in his tone. He lowered in eyes in a bow and waited.

The god of the hearth smiled at young mortal that she had placed her trust in and beckoned him to enter. Soon, the two were comfortably sitting in the back seat.

"Good afternoon, Naruto. I hope the flight was alright." There was a hopefulness in her short prod for him to open a conversation.

He managed with a semi-confident, "It was comfortable enough. There was a lot of food." Her smile reached her cheeks.

"Would you like more?"

At the end of the ride, Naruto was completely full off of godly food that...was...better...equal...better...EQUAL to Icharaku's ramen! But _holy shit_ was it delicious.

 _'_ _Food like that was possible?'_

Lady Hestia had given Naruto a cellular device that had a touch screen and explained its uses, and explained that there was no danger, supposedly, in him using it since he had no connections to the gods. Demigods that used cell phones usually gave a signal as powerful as and as fast as Hera-zon's, but Naruto's simple clear-sightedness and ungodliness bypassed all rules.

Before she left him, she did give him one bit of advice.

 _"Romans respect strength. You have quite a bit of that, Naruto. Use it to your advantage." Her words escaped her lips like silk._

Naruto was left at the edge of a street in between crossing traffic. He couldn't exactly see it, but he could most definitely feel the illusion that was playing tricks with his mind. Mentally cursing at his weakness in genjutsu, Naruto walked over to the illusion and simply _walked through_. He found himself at the edge of what seemed to be a camp, with a large, rapid river a couple of hundred feet in front of him. He couldn't hear the bustling of the camp, but he could see the large camp with its rather aesthetic roman structure and two parts. It seemed split between portraying Roman culture as much in you face as possible, and a Roman influenced place to live.

Naruto decided he liked it, as a small smile, weak as a whispering wind, graced his lips.

Within seconds, he could hear the footsteps closing in on his direction, and a loud alarm was screeching in the background at the center of the camp. The sound of a foreign tongue entered one ear and escaped right out the other, since he had no clue what they were saying. However, they stopped at the river and didn't cross. The blond decided to meet them halfway.

A couple minutes of striding forward, he was at the edge of the waters that cascaded by. Instead of stopping, he kept walking, and was soon on top of the water and marching onward to the Roman camp. Muttering and whispers grew, and eyes were flitting from one another to eventually, two people. Naruto presumed them to be the ones in charge.

When he was about five feet away from the pair in charge, a boy and a girl, both teenagers, he stopped walking and grinned.

"Yo!" he chirped. If anything, the tension and apprehension that was gluing to each person's naked body seemed to intensify. No one knew who this guy was, but he just marched up, walked across water like it was _nothing_ , and was now trying to communicate in the midst of hundreds of weapons pointed at him with no sign of fear.

Jason stared down the blue-eyed teen across from him with piercing orbs, but after a few moments of fiery eye-locking, he gave it up and spoke. "Who are you?" He kept his weapon unsheathed and still raised, but not as taut as it was seconds before. The girl next to him, Reyna, copied the praetor's actions, as did the rest of the armed camp.

The blond enigma seemed to appreciate this. Stabbing a thumb against his chest, he spoke, "The name's Naruto. I'm here on a mission given to me by _Vesta_ , the goddess of Hearth, Home, and Family. I come as a representative of her and will remain here until the gods give me a signal or my mission is complete." The confidence was literally oozing, sliding down every person's figures as they had no choice but to listen. His eyes matched every camper's as he spoke, as if saying _'I see you_ _'_ to each camper. He returned his gaze to the leaders of the camp, and attempting his best guard-dropping smile.

Reyna slowly sheathed her weapon completely. Jason side-eyed her and decided to show a unified front, following her actions.

Thirty minutes later, Naruto was at the forefront of the camp and was inside of the council.

"I'm saying that this message by the gods is not getting the proper interpretation it was meant to be!" Ocatvius declared fanatically, his arms waving as uncontrollably as his possessed behavior. "This man is sent by the gods and is a huge threat! Why would they send us an unknown immediately after the war, and what purpose would he serve? It clearly doesn't make sense to me, and I can tell the council agrees!" The murmurs seemed to certainly be on the side of Octavius. The young prophet took heart, motive finding momentum and heart sieged with fervor, roared with passion into his audience. "These praetors are leading you in the wrong way!"

Naruto was unimpressed by the skinny limbs and high-pitched young teen that was somehow having sway with the council, but what was he to say?

Oh, right. Maybe exactly what was on his mind.

"That's enough, Octavius."

The blond quirked an eyebrow and took a step back, his arms crossed over his chest as Jason strode forth into the center of the auditorium. Jason stood in front of Octavius, and Naruto then realized how monumental the difference between the two was. Jason was lean, but muscular, with a streak in his eye and a commanding presence exuding from his forceful silence. He _forced_ you to listen, without even needing to try. Octavius, was shorter, skinny, but his eyes were filled with an equal amount of passion for what he believed was right. His words were powerful and his mind was a steel trap, constantly preying on anything that could be convinced.

Perhaps if he weren't so fanatical and slightly stronger and well built and also more social, then maybe Octavius would have been the praetor. But it was also post-war, and Jason was the leader in combat ability and strategy, so it was Octavius' loss.

Naruto mentally filed that information away and returned to the real world. Jason had spoken his terse, short speech and was already walking back to Naruto. He pointed out the door, and the blond followed after the male praetor. Reyna was immediately behind the ninja.

Naruto found himself in a military tent and seated across the two. The tent was hardly furnished, with weapons and a few seats haphazardly placed in the open space available.

 _'Spartan.'_

Reyna placed his elbows on the wooden table and her hands in plain view. Jason preferred to keep his under the table. Matching the twos' gazes, Naruto had his hands lightly land on the table.

"Explain yourself." Reyna ordered. Her knuckles tightened. "Thoroughly."

 **Chapter End.**

 **Future:**

 _"You can run at the speed of sound...when you're holding back?"_

 _Naruto chuckled at Jason's incredulous tone. "That's right," he answered with a nod. The ninja pointed at Jason, a hungry grin rapidly forming and reaching his eyes. Naruto was hungry for combat, and a few weeks of training by himself had left him...famished. "But I've heard that you can also pass the speed of sound, am I right?"_

 _Jason took a moment, then slowly nodded._

 _"I can." There was no hesitation in the response. Truth, Naruto determined._

 _Reyna could suddenly feel the blond's bloodthirsty need for combat, and she quickly averted her eyes to lock onto Jason's, but her partner stood confidently and remained passively locked with Naruto's oceans._

 _"Good!" Naruto's hungry smile was quickly swapped for a serene, happy-go-lucky grin that had neither praetor fooled. The blond had his back to them a moment later and began walking away. In the direction of the coliseum. "Let's fight."_

 _Jason had yet to move. "When?"_

 _Naruto stopped walking, and then suddenly caught himself laughig, his bellows catching the attention of a few campers in the area. Just as suddenly as he started, he stopped. Then, his head slowly turned, and one lone, yet cheerful, warm blue eye caught onto Jason's._

 _"Now," was the jovial reply._

 _Jason literally didn't know what hit him._

 **A/N: This was honestly...a really rough chapter to write. And I know it was a short chapter, but I think anything out is better than nothing.**

 **Also, question. Does anyone here like RWBY and, specifically, RWBY/Naruto crossovers? How many like to ship Naruto and Weiss? Randomly felt like writing that, and it's been on my head for a week. I don't see that pair much in the fandom.**

 **Hope the writing wasn't too rough, and hope y'all enjoyed it!**

 **Peace!**


End file.
